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CICERO DE OFFICIIS; 

OR 

HIS TREATISE 

CONCERNING THE MORAL DUTIES OF MANKIND. 

TO WHICH ARE SUBJOINED, 

HIS MORAL PARADOXES ; 

THE 

VISION OF SCIPIO, 
CONCERNING A FUTURE STATE} 

AND 

HIS LETTER 

ON 

THE DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 

WITH NOTES HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 



TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM GUTHRIE, ESQ. 

-— x 



LONDON : 

PRINTED FOR LACK1NGTON, HUGHES, HARDING, MAVOR, AND JONES ; 
F. C. AND J. RIV1NGTON; J. CUTHELL; J. AND W. T. CLARKE ; 
LONGMAN, HURST, AND CO.; T. CADELL ; R. BALDWIN AND CO.; 
G.ANDW.B. WHITTAKER; J. NUNN 5 J.BOOKER 5 J. AND A. ARCH ; 
I. RICHARDSON 5 J. RICHARDSON; T. HAMILTON ; OGLE AND CO. ; 
E. EDWARDS J R. SCHOLEY ; J. BOHN 5 AND T. AND J. ALLMAN. 



1820. 



D 






J. D. Dewick, Printer, 
46, Barbican. 



PREFACE. 



The following is a collection of uninspired 
knowledge the most extensively useful of any 
ever published. It has served as a storehouse 
from whence all writers since the days of Cicero 
who have treated either of morals or ethics, have 
not only adorned but furnished their works. 
Divines have borrowed their systems, legislators 
their constitutions, statesmen their maxims, and 
magistrates their practice, from our author's 
Treatise de Officiis which may properly be 
termed the whole duty of man, as practised 
by the moral part of the heathen world before 
revelation took place. Our holy religion was so 
far from altering or depressing Cicero's doc- 
trines, that it ennobled and improved them; 
so that they may justly be looked upon as con- 
taining a system of unrevealed Christianity. 



IV PREFACE. 

But it is amazing to see how a great name 
springing from excellencies, for which perhaps 
its owner is indebted to others, can absorb the 
lustre of its benefactors. Pansetius was the real 
original author of Cicero's book upon the Moral 
Duties, but the name of Pansetius as a philo- 
sopher, is as obscure as those of Hortensius, 
Crassus, Lucullus, and other great men are as 
orators. The lustre of Cicero has swallowed 
up their fame, and their literary merits would 
hardly be mentioned were it not for his writings. 

This is not the only unjust effect that the 
great name of a man produces in admiring pos- 
terity, for it not only obscures brightness in 
others, but brightens defects in himself. The 
characteristic excellency of Cicero was elo- 
quence ; he had scarcely another merit, I had 
almost said scarcely another virtue. He more 
than once owns that all the Greek learning he 
studied was with a view to improve himself in 
that art; and there cannot be a doubt that all 
his philosophical writings are taken from the 
Greeks. Many proofs of this are yet extant, 
but many more have perished through the in- 
jury of time, and the universality of his lan- 
guage, which rendered his originals dry, tedious, 
troublesome, and therefore disregarded by the 
public. Very different has been the fate of 
Cicero's writings, for his eloquence and his great 
command of expression give such liveliness to 



PREFACE. V 

the most barren subjects he handles, that the 
ignorant learned his doctrine because they loved 
his writing", while the knowing loved his writing 
because they improved by his doctrine. 

In vain do we look back to Cicero's practice, 
for the virtues of a philosopher or a patriot ; yet 
no man ever understood them better than 
Cicero did in theory, because the study of them 
is the indispensable requisite of eloquence. But 
it was only as an orator that he was acquainted 
with them ; as a man, his conduct was if possible, 
below contempt itself. When divested of the 
orator, when he suffers the anguish of affliction,, 
to bereave him of his eloquence, when he pours 
forth his soul to his friends in the language of 
nature, how despicable does he appear ? How 
unlike a Cato, a Brutus, a Socrates, a Charles 
the First, a More, or a Russel ? 

A similar observation may be made with 
regard to his writings, especially the following 
Treatise concerning the Moral Duties. That 
part of it in which he has followed Pansetius, 
is sensible, clear, and undeniable, in most of 
its definitions, descriptions, and inferences ; but 
having little room for introducing into any part 
of it his favourite accomplishment, he is some- 
times dry, tedious, and tautologous, and it is easy 
to see when he deviates from the accurate Greek, 
in order to give himself the air of an original. 
On the other hand, when he formallly separates 



IV PREFACE. 

from Panaetius, as he does at the end of the 
second Book, and when he as it were sets up for 
himself, how very different is then his manner 
from the preceding part of the Work ? He 
there indulges his natural vein. The enco- 
miums he runs into upon Regulus and his other 
countrymen, are indeed the most pleasing part 
of the Work, because the most sentimental, but 
they are unphilosophical and declamatory. 
While he reasons concerning the obligation of 
an oath, he hampers himself by admitting the 
possibility that Providence takes no concern in 
human actions. In short, all that part, though 
extremely beautiful is destitute of that precision 
and closeness that are required from a philo- 
sopher, and which are visible in all our author's 
philosophical writings when he follows the 
Greeks. 

The conferences concerning Old Age and 
Friendship, are as highly finished and as fine 
performances as perhaps ever appeared in any 
language ; for their subjects are such as admit 
the most beautiful touches of his art, which he 
has every where introduced into them with 
the utmost propriety. But above all, we 
may remark how wonderfully cautious he 
is when he speaks as a philosopher and in his 
own person, and how unreserved as an orator. 
In his Treatise concerning the Moral Duties, 
the mention he makes of Providence and a 



PREFACE. VI 

future state is rather unfavourable than otherwise 
to those two articles ; and seriously speaking, it 
is not quite clear that Cicero believed either of 
them. It is true that we often find him incul- 
cating them in his writings, but it is always in 
the declamatory way, because the belief of those 
two important doctrines gave a glow to his elo- 
quence as an orator, and flattered his vanity as 
a man. It is in this light that I consider all the 
beautiful passages of his Orations, in which he 
declaims with such spirit upon the immortality 
of the soul, and the existence of a future state. 
In like manner the fine sentiments which he puts 
into the mouths of his Cato, his Laelius, and his 
Scipio upon the same subject, are all of them ac- 
commodated only to oratorical purposes, and our 
author as a philosopher had always a ready ex- 
cuse for those doctrines which he puts into the 
mouths of others, or which he himself preaches 
up as an orator. With him the phrase oratorio 
dictum signifies the very same thing as poetici 
dictum signifies among the poets. 

Notwithstanding this, I cannot absolutely pro- 
nounce that Cicero disbelieved either the im- 
mortality of the soul, or the existence of Provi- 
dence. It is certain that without the belief of 
both, all the plans of philosophy which he in- 
culcates and lays down with so much accuracy 
in the various parts of his writings must be very 
ineffectual for the service of mankind. 



Vlll PREFACE. 

In the following pieces he seems to have 
selected whatever was most probable and ra- 
tional from all the various sects of philosophers. 
Though the reader who is acquainted with the 
vast modern improvements in natural philo- 
sophy and astronomy, may smile at the fanciful 
description which Scipio gives us in his vision 
of the system of nature, yet he will not find 
that moral philosophy has improved in proportion 
to natural. He will perceive that it is to Cicero 
we owe what is most valuable in Grotius, in 
PuffendorfF, in Cumberland, in Woolaston, and 
hundreds of other writers, and even in some of the 
fathers, who were perpetually abusing and imi- 
tating him. He will confess that in one respect 
our author stands yet unrivalled, and that is in 
the gracefulness and the propriety with which 
he introduces his subjects. When he is to lay 
down in the following volume a plan of virtuous 
life, and for the discharge of all the moral 
duties, he addresses it to his son, with whom he 
can be supposed to have no reserve, and to 
whom he unfolds the real sentiments of his own 
heart. When he recommends the means of 
making Old Age happy, he puts his sentiments 
in the mouth of the elder Cato, the great ex- 
ample of what he there describes. When he 
treats of virtuous Friendship, he takes advantage 
of the character of a Laelius, whose friendship 
with Scipio has been so celebrated ; and the im- 



PREFACE. IX 

mortality of the soul is solemnly inculcated upon 
the younger, by the elder Africanus. 

These two are undoubtedly the greatest and 
most amiable characters that ever Rome pro- 
duced, and to the elder perhaps we owe our 
Treatise De Officiis. For not contented to 
carry his country's military glories to a much 
greater height than they ever had been at before, 
he strove to make her as great in arts as in arms. 
The truth is, when the elder Scipio entered 
upon life, the learning of the Romans was very 
despicable, and their taste barbarous. He im- 
proved the one, and reformed the other. He 
had about him none of that unamiable haughti- 
ness, none of those horrid virtues, upon which 
his countrymen so much valued themselves. 
He joined the activity of the Roman to the 
politeness of the Greek ; and crowned all with 
those moral virtues that were uncommon in 
either. But it was not enough that he practised 
them himself, for he communicated them to his 
country. He first taught the Romans how to 
engraft the elegance of manners upon the prac- 
tice of morality, and he had the happy art of 
making business and amusement subservient to 
each other ; while all his actions had an air of 
ease which gave his enemies a handle to accuse 
him of indolence. This produced an inquiry 
into his conduct, which turned out so much to 
his advantage that they were forced to acknow- 



X PREFACE 

ledge that Scipio was the most indefatigable of 
mankind, and that his equal never was known in 
application, despatch, and regularity. 

Such was the patron of Pansetius, the author 
of what is most valuable in the following Trea- 
tise upon the Moral Duties. The elder Afri- 
canus in all his actions and character was so well 
followed by the younger, that the life both in 
public and private of the latter, was but a trans- 
cript of the former. 

I have thought myself obliged to do this 
justice to those two great Romans, because it 
was in the school of arts founded by them, that 
our author acquired his eloquence. Their ex- 
ample gave the manners of the noble Romans, 
a turn to learning and the polite arts, which 
created amongst them an emulation that was of 
the utmost service to literature, and which our 
author availed himself of so critically, that from 
an obscure birth he arrived at the highest honours 
his country could bestow. 

With regard to the following translation, I 
have observed the same method that I did in 
translating the other pieces of Cicero. I have 
considered him equally as an author and as a 
writer ; that is, I have equally studied his matter 
and his manner. Doctor Cockman undoubt- 
edly understood him as an author as well as any 
man, but in his translation we see nothing of the 
writer. Provided he expresses the sense of the 



PREFACE. XI 

author, he cares not in what poor inelegant terms 
he does it ; and his inattention to the beauties of 
both languages, I mean that which he translates 
into, and translates from, seems to render another 
translation expedient, if not necessary. 

Some of the following pieces appeared in 
English, almost as early as the art of printing 
itself did in England. A translation of De 
Officiis was printed by Caxton, in the year 1481. 
The famous Sir John Falstaff, our Shakepeare's 
favourite character, at the age of fourscore re- 
commended to the same Caxton the printing a 
translation of our author's Conference concern- 
ing Old Age, which Caxton accordingly exe- 
cuted, and dedicated it together with an English 
translation of the Conference concerning Friend- 
ship, to king Edward IV. In Caxton's pre- 
face we are told that the translation was per- 
formed by the Earl of Worcester, who after- 
wards lost his head in the civil wars of England. 
The Treatise De Officiis has been since several 
times translated into English, particularly by 
L'Estrange, but as he seems to have done it 
from a very bad translation of the French, I 
should not have mentioned his performance had 
it not been that it had such great success. I 
have likewise seen several French translations of 
the following pieces, but they are so truly French, 
that they deserve no particular mention. 

The Paradoxes, which the reader will like- 



XI 1 PREFACE. 

wise find in this volume, are a kind of philo- 
sophical exercises which are executed with 
wonderful spirit, and they have by many learned 
men been preferred to any piece of our author. 
The reader will perhaps be pleased to compare 
the character which he gives of Cato's eloquence 
with the speech put into his mouth by Sallust. 

This volume would not have been complete, 
without the excellent political letter wrote by 
our author to his brother. The doctrine it con- 
veys is of general use to all magistrates, and in 
all countries, and it is laid down in a very happy 
manner. The flattery it contains was necessary 
to make the subject go down with a man so 
haughty and so choleric as Quintus was. Mean- 
while, the reader will perceive with what unli- 
mited powers the governors of the Roman pro- 
vinces were vested. Their own edicts seem to 
have been their Jaws, and the injured had no 
relief but by an application to Rome, and to 
judges who were too much interested to do them 
justice, because they might themselves next day, 
be in the condition of the impeached. 



POSTSCRIPT. 



It is said of a late English nobleman, who 
was distinguished by a fine taste in architecture, 
and by a noble collection of every thing relating 
to that art, that he was struck with surprise at 
the model of a beautiful church he saw in Italy, 
and greedily inquiring where the original was 
to be seen, he was told in London, where his 
lordship had spent most of his life. I own the 
same, in one respect, is somewhat my own case. 
For though I have had through my hands, I 
believe, about fifty different editions of Cicero's 
Offices in the original, I never knew that the 
very best one was printed within these ten years 
at London, till I saw it lately by chance men- 
tioned in the end of an advertisement, at the 
latter part of a newspaper. The edition I mean, 
is that of Doctor Pearce, now Lord Bishop of 
Bangor, illustrated with his lordship's and 
Doctor Chapman's excellent notes. 



XIV PREFACE. 

This omission, unaccountable as it was, gave 
me however a sensible pleasure when upon a 
review and a comparison, I found I had executed 
my undertaking almost in the same manner as 
if I had applied to that powerful auxiliary, whose 
assistance had I had it, would at once' have de- 
prived me of great satisfaction, and have saved 
me from great labour. 

I can esteem where I do not adore, I can ackno w- 
ledge merit where I cannot place infallibility ; 
he is a despicable writer, who in literary matters 
pins his faith upon any human authority ; and a 
weak man who cannot differ with another with- 
out acrimony, or vindicate himself without ill 
manners. I have through the course of the 
following notes, made free with several great 
authorities who have commented upon, or trans- 
lated the Treatise De Officiis, and if the reader 
should compare my translation and notes, with 
his lordship's edition and notes, he will find that 
I have in several passages understood my author 
in a sense different from that of his lordship. 
It is therefore a piece of respect that I owe not 
only to my readers, but to his lordship's great 
erudition, to give my reasons, why I have 
not thought proper to alter the passages in 
question. 

I cannot be of his lordship's opinion in his 
note, p. 32. (p. 18. 1. 8. of the translation) upon 
the words in alterum incidunt. His lordship 



PREFACE. XV 

thinks there is no sense in saying, that while 
men are practising one part of the moral duties 
and fall upon another, they are therefore to 
blame. I own, that before I saw his lordship's 
edition I had no doubt in my own mind, that 
incidere in aliquod may signify to fail, to break 
short, or to trip in a matter. De Oratore 1. 2. 
cap. 82. Inciditur omnis Deliberation all 
debate breaks short or is at an end. Incidens 
Vox, a faultering pronunciation. With num- 
berless other instances. 

In the passage before us, it has a peculiar 
propriety ; because of the words assequuntur 
and impediti. 

I agree with his lordship in thinking the 
passage in p. 51, (that critics have thought not 
to be genuine) is Cicero's. 

His lordship, p< 53, (p. 27. 1. 3. of the trans- 
lation) in his note upon the word capitalior 
seems to think it necessarily implies a criminal 
sense ; and as such, he introduces an alteration 
of the text in p. 341. I had, before I saw his 
lordship's edition, given my reasons (see trans- 
lation p. 192 and 193, in the note) why I did not 
think that the word capitalist necessarily implies 
a criminal sense. 

But in the passage p. 53, of his lordship's 
edition, the sense is precisely the same, if the 
word is translated the most guilty villain, as the 
chief or the capital villain. 



XVI * PREFACE. 

I had translated the words (p. 38. 1. 5. of the 
translation), p. 72, of his lordship's edition, quo 
difficilius, hoc pr&clarius, " The more diffi- 
cult the task of correcting this abuse is, it is the 
more glorious," and I have not altered the pas- 
sage, though his lordship takes it in another 
sense, viz. " But the more difficult it is to 
practise justice while we aim at excellency, it is 
the more glorious." I am far from condemning 
this sense, nay I should have entirely embraced 
it, had it not been for the immediately following 
words in the original, which make me think that 
the passage is one of the many oblique reflec- 
tions that Cicero throws out in this work against 
the government of Caesar and his followers, 
whose practices he here describes. 

His lordship's remark upon the expression, 
p. 73, of his edition, et Glorice Cupiditate, 
is certainly just, and I own it did not occur to 
me ; but the manner in which I have translated 
the whole passage is so little different from his 
lorship's sense of it, that I scarcely think it re- 
quires any alteration. 

In the note upon the words Mtitudo Animi, 
p. 92 (p. 50. 1. 23, translation), I beg leave to 
differ widely from his lordship. I have trans- 
lated the whole passage, " A smoothness, or 
what we may call a depth of temper," and I can 
see no reason from his lordship's note for altering 
it. And I found Aptitudo, the word he wants 



PREFACE XVI 1 

to substitute in the text, I should have under- 
stood it ; but had another critic suggested Alti* 
tudo, I should have liked it much better. That 
Altitudo may signify depth, his lordship seems 
to allow ; and there scarcely can be a doubt that 
facilis especially in our author, many times 
signifies smooth, and that smoothness is the 
effect of depth in water is generally admitted and 
experienced; therefore the objection his lord- 
ship brings against the impropriety of the period, 
I think vanishes. Not to mention that his lord- 
ship observes Aptitudo to be no where else used 
by our author ; and that the allusions of the 
mind to the sea are frequent in Cicero. Add to 
this, that his lordship himself mentions our 
author making use of Altitudo animi in his 
oratorial partitions ; and if the reader consults 
that passage he will find he does it in the very 
sense contended for here, viz. that depth of 
temper which is required under a free state in a 
great man, who wants to rise or to rule, and 
which conceals the great variety of provo- 
cations which an abuse of liberty may expose 
him to. 

I have translated the passage of note (8) p. 
107, (p. 59. 1. 13. Translation) in his lordship's 
sense, but his lordship seems to be mistaken in 
the principle of his opposition to the common 
reading ; and that from his not attending to the 
meaning of the word quidem which with our 

b 



XV111 PREFACE. 

author often, if not generally, is almost the 
same with Saltern, at least. In this sense the 
sentence objected to by his lordship will run 
thus. " The one kind of wit is worthy a man, 
the other is unworthy, at least of a gentleman. " 
I agree, however, with his lordship, that his 
reading makes better sense. 

This leads me to his lordship's note (9) p. 
153, (p. 83. 1. 20. Translation) where he objects 
to the reading from which I have translated the 
passage there referred to; for says he every 
thing that is worthy a Homo, is worthy a Liber ; 
because adds he afterwards, the idea of the 
human kind comprehends the Libert as well as 
the Servi. But his lordship in this place does 
not seem to attend, that Liber is not put in con- 
tradistinction to Servus, but to Homo, and sig- 
nifies a man of fortune and education. 

I cannot imagine how his lordship comes to 
think that the words in p. 158. (p. 86. 1. 16. 
Translation) which he has enclosed within 
crotchets are misplaced, for I think nothing can 
come more naturally to strengthen our author's 
argument. 

The words in p. 164, (in p. 90. 1. 1. Trans- 
lation), Aut quid maxime utile, which his lord- 
ship thinks does not belong to Cicero, are trans- 
lated by me without any such mark of repro- 
bation ; nor even after reading his lordship's ob- 
jection to them do I find any reason to be of 



PREFACE. XIX 

another opinion than that they are genuine. 
Cicero proposes to treat of the Utilia, and 
amongst the Vtilia, which is Utilius, or Magis 
utile, and which is Utilissimum, or Maxime 
utile. His lordship thinks that utilius and max- 
ime utile are the same. But whoever attends 
to the thread of our author's reasoning, which 
is professedly antistoical, must see that he lays 
down all the three degrees ; and admits that a 
thing may be more useful or profitable than 
another, and yet not profitable in the highest 
degree. In like manner as he lays it down, 
that virtue is either Sola expetenda, or that it is 
maxime expetenda, i. e. " The only desireable 
object," or " of all objects, the most desirable." 
I agree with his lordship in his notes (5 and 6) 
p. 165 and 166, but I have translated the passages 
(p. 90. 1. 28. Translation) differently from the 
sense in which Doctor Cockman has translated 
them, and in which I believe, his lordship un- 
derstands them. For I have translated the words 
Agendo and Actiones literally, but Doctor 
Cockman translates Actiones, public orations. 
Now, I think it much safer to translate it con- 
duct, because that word comprehends not only 
bis pleadings and politics, but the whole of his 
public life, upon which he tells Lentulus, Epist. 
ad Fam. 9. he had wrote three books. Upon 
the whole, I do not remember that in all this Trea- 
tise Cicero once has the word Actio signifying a 



XX PREFACE. 

pleading, though he frequently uses it in the 
sense in which I have translated it. 

I entirely agree with the note (5) that has 
Chapman at the end of it, p. 180. His lord- 
ship thinks note (1) p. 211. that the copulative 
bought there to be left out. 1 have indeed 
translated it (p. 115. 1. 14. Translation) in that 
manner, but I do not understand the passage in 
the same manner with his lordship. Facilis 
in our author, does not always signify what we 
in English term easy. Ready is here and often 
elsewhere the sense of that word, and as such it 
corresponds extremely well with our author's 
meaning, which is to show the great advantages 
which an early prepossession of the public of a 
young man are to him ; and that that pre- 
possession may be readily acquired by the ap-> 
pearance of his attaching himself to men of 
learning and virtue. 

His lordship's note (6) p. 234. (p. 128. 1. 17. 
Translation) is I apprehend, built upon a mis- 
taken fact. For according to Cicero's words 
(of which his lordship does not impeach the 
reading) the fact was, that even when Cimon 
lived at Athens, his house in that city was 
open to those of his tribe ; that he had ordered 
his economy so ; and that though he was not in 
the country himself, his villas were likewise 
open to them. 

P. 237. note (3) his lordship here adopts a 



PREFACE. XXI 

note from Manutius which I was dissatisfied 
with, when I was translating the passage (see 
the Translation p. 129. 1. 28.) where I have 
translated it, who readily toils, nor can I see the 
propriety of the note of Manutius. 

I should be of his lordship's opinion in note 
(8) p. 240. (p. 132. 1. 5. Translation) were it 
not that the word Modestum, which our author 
joins with Probum, signifies the very same 
thing that his lordship contends the word probus 
does. The scope of the note, however, is cer- 
tainly just, but I think not quite applicable to 
this passage. 

P. 261. note (9) may be just, but I think the 
manner in which I have translated the passage 
answers pretty well to our author's meaning, 
and is defensible from his lordship's objections 
to the common reading of the original. See 
Translation p. 143. 1. 5. 

I can by no means be of his lordship's opi- 
nion, note (2) p. 263. (p. 143. 1. 17. Translation.) 
The whole of the passage has an air of ridicule ; 
and I apprehend there was as great a difference 
between the Romans who laid out (as Atticus 
and other men of property did) their money 
at legal interest, and the Fceneratores ad 
medium Janum sedentes, as there is between 
the directors of our public companies and the 
sharks of Exchange-alley. 

I caunot agree either with his lordship or 



XXII PREFACE. 

Doctor Chapman in their notes, p. 200 and 201 
note (2) (p. 110. 1. 1. Translation) Doctor Chap- 
man thinks that Majores cannot be understood 
in the sense I have taken it, because says he, it 
is incompatible with Tully's philosophy; but I 
can by no means be of that opinion. Our 
author in all this work disclaims systematical 
philosophy, and nothing can be more agreeable 
to his way of thinking than that some powers 
of the soul are fitted for magnanimity, &c. and 
that these are the sublimer faculties of the mind 
which pleasures may thus warp ; and which are 
opposed to that yielding to pleasure spoken of 
immediately before. In like manner Cicero 
allots fervency to be the property of certain 
great minds, and not of others, vide 1.1. De 
Offic. chap. 15. Besides the word Plerique 
which immediately follows would be superfluous 
if we were to understand it in the Doctor's 
sense, viz. the greatest part of mankind. 

I have nothing to object to his lordship's 
emendation, note (1) p. 286. excepting that he 
lays it down as being more than conjecture. 
But however plausible it may be, I can retract 
nothing of what I have said in my note upon 
the same passage (p. 159. see note Translation.) 
The old philosophers almost of all denominations 
admitted that the unjust affections of the mind 
were the greatest of all evils. " Therefore 
(says our author) a man rather than break into 



PREFACE. XXJ11 

the laws of society will endure the greatest 
hardships of body and fortune ; he will likewise 
endure the greatest anguish of mind (excepting 
that anguish which arises from passions dis- 
honest in themselves, and which give rise to the 
very evil here complained of), that is, he will en- 
dure all kind of afflictions on account of his 
nearest and tenderest concerns/' I repeat it 
again, that I have nothing to object to his lord- 
ship's sense of this passage, but if we admit of 
conjectures not warranted by any manuscripts, 
it is hard to say where the practice may stop. 

And for that reason I cannot agree with the 
conjecture of Manutius, which his lordship re- 
commends note (4) p. 296. I have in my note 
upon that passage (p. 165. Translation) given 
my reasons for the sense in which I have trans- 
lated it. I have there, indeed, blamed the ob- 
vious acceptation of the common reading, but 
upon a review I should choose to adopt it, 
rather than a reading that is warranted only by 
conjecture. In short I cannot see the least 
foundation for that jealousy which his lordship 
seems to entertain for our author's principles if 
the common reading is not altered ; for I know 
no passage in this work less liable to an exception 
of this kind, even if we suffer the common 
reading to stand. 

His lordship, p. 307. note (3) seems to ap- 
prove of Olivet's alteration of Utilitas toVilitas, 



XTXIV PREFACE. 

but I can see no manner of reason for it, and 
therefore, have followed (p. 173. 1. 29. Trans- 
lation) the allowed reading. 

I have nothing to object to his lordship's note 
(7) p. 317. (p. 179. 1. 9. Translation) but ad- 
mitting the justness of it, I see no reason for 
altering my translation of the passage. I believe 
however, it is no unusual thing for brokers to be 
in combinations, even of the kind his lordship 
thinks to be improbable, and that many a fine 
picture for instance, has gone at an under value 
by men, who were reputed to have skill, putting 
them up at auctions at a small value, and after 
bidding a very little more, letting them fall 
into the hands of those with whom they are in 
combination. 

His lordship, after Fabricius, tells us (p. 321. 
note 7) (p. 181. 1. 6. Translation) that the house 
here spoken of was not to be demolished, only 
the highest part of it was to be lowered ; and 
that upon the authority of Valerius Maximus, 
who gives us the same story. I should have no 
manner of objection to this sense, if it can be 
made appear that demolire JEdem, signifies no 
more than taking away the upper story of a 
house ; for Valerius says, that Calphurnius was 
demolire Domum coactus, and Cicero, Cal- 
phurnius cum demolitus esset. If demolire 
Domum therefore in Latin, signifies no more 
than to " lower a house," " to demolish a 



PREFACE. XXV 

house," in English ought to have the same sig- 
nification. 

I cannot see the propriety of the word Prin- 
cipiis (p. 184. 1. 4. Translation) which his lord- 
ship contends, note 8, p. 326, should stand in 
the original there. I think it destroys the 
beauty of our author's allusion to the graphic 
arts. Mean time, I understand Exemplis in the 
same sense as Exemplaribus, and I believe I am 
very well warranted by our author in so doing. 

The word Malitia is by me translated 
cunning, but his lordship says, that Malitia 
is si quis mala bonis anteponit, which are our 
author's words. I must however ask his lord- 
ship's pardon, if I think that Cicero gives this as 
a property, but not as a character of Malitia. 
Nothing can be more plain than that Malitia 
in this work often signifies the very same thing 
that cunning does in English ; nay, the words 
agree so well together, that both are used some- 
times in a good, or at least in no bad sense. 
Our author in one of his epistles to Atticus, 
commends his Malitia in dealing with another 
person, as if we should say in English, " you 
were too cunning for him." Nisi JUalitia 
supplet is a term in the civil law to imply that 
young men are under age to a certain time unless 
their JWalitia, cunning, or archness, or shrewd- 
ness make up for their want of years. 

I cannot think the words quam inutile, p. 
c 



XXVI PREFACE. 

340. note 2, to be superfluous. Our author 
here (p. 192. 1. 15 Translation) and elsewhere 
in this work, is perpetually inculcating the dif- 
ference between seeming and real utility, and that 
in fact, injustice is always attended by inutility 
and dishonour. 

His lordship's note (6) p. 243, is so very in- 
genious and plausible, that I will translate the 
whole passage. " Now (says our author), I will 
ramble to the opinion of the vulgar. Can any 
greater benefits accrue than what accrue from 
sovereignty ?" But notwithstanding the pas- 
sages brought by his lordship (which with sub- 
mission I do not think similar) to justify the 
propriety of saying, Jlbeo advulgi Opinionem, 
I cannot retract what I have said upon that 
passage, (p. 193. note 9, Translation) though 
in the main my translation agrees with his lord- 
ship's sense of the passage. 

I can by no means be of opinion with his 
lordship, note 9, p. 345. that Cicero speaks 
inconsistently with himself, if the common 
reading according to which I have translated 
the passage (p. 195. 1. 32. Translation) should* 
stand. If an English author were to write a 
Treatise of this kind, and had occasion to 
mention with applause one of Queen Elizabeth's 
parliaments, he might naturally call it our par- 
liament ; and he might do the same if he was to 
censure one of the parliaments since that time, 



PREFACE. XXVll 

This is exactly the case with that of the passage 
before us. 

I have been so full (note 1, p. 197, Trans- 
lation) in defence of the common reading, 
which his lordship, p. 348. note 3, and all 
the commentators have objected to, that what 
I have said there, answers his lordship's criticism 
as well as those of other editors. I repeat 
what I have said in the note referred to, that 
I can see no reason for supposing with the com- 
mentators, Curio to have been against the measure. 
There could be no objection to his lordship's 
substituting voracem for furacem, p. 352. note 
5, but that it is warranted by no MSS or 
edition. I therefore choose to translate the 
passage as I find it, though there is somewhat of 
an inconsistency in it, unless we suppose fura- 
cem as I have translated it, a hankering after 
pilfering, but without carrying it into execution, 
for the seller was I suppose to inform the buyer 
only of the facts the slaves had been guilty of. A 
man may be Furax and Ebriosus yet neither, a 
Fur nor Ebrius. (See p. 202,1. 11 . Translation.) 
I can see no manner of occasion for his lord- 
ship's note (1) p. 359, if we suppose, as I believe 
the fact to have been, that the commanders in 
chief here spoken of took the chief command 
by turns, and that it was Hamilcar's turn when 
Regulus was taken. ' 

His lordship, p. 361, note 3, is at pains to 



XXVlli PREFACE. 

reconcile to feet the difficulty which appears 
upon the face of this passage, if we understand 
it in the common sense it is taken in. (See p. 
207, and note z, Translation). But I should be 
glad to know whether the fact there laid down 
by his lordship is only suppositious, or if it is 
supported by any good authority. I doubt it is 
not ; and that we ought to translate the words, 
Sententiam ne diceret recusavit in their obvious 
sense, viz. that he refused to conceal his opinion, 
which was the truth of the matter, and which is 
the only way we can reconcile the staring incon- 
sistences of the passage. 

The sense which his lordship wants to intro- 
duce, note 8, p. 368, is, I am afraid not quite con- 
sistent either with a good man or with our author's 
meaning. For a man in many cases may swear 
to the performance of a thing which he may think 
he ought not to perform, and yet the circum- 
stances under which he swears, may oblige him in 
honour and conscience to perform his oath. 

Such are the passages in which with great 
diffidence, I have differed with his lordship* and 
if any reader should think them to be too im- 
material to be thus taken notice of, he ought to 
know, that in a work that carries such authority 
as this does, every point and particle deserves to 
be canvassed, and nothing it contains is im- 
material . 



CICERO DE OFFICIIS; 

OR, 

HIS TREATISE 

CONCERNING 

THE MORAL DUTIES OF MANKIND. 



If we except the Holy Scriptures, the following work has 
been, perhaps, of more service to mankind, than any that 
ever was published. It was easy for Cicero, to see that his 
countrymen, in general, had very imperfect notions of the 
moral duties. Their virtues were often rather terrible than 
amiable, and that patriotism which the best of them affected, 
often made them neglect the prior ties of humanity and natural 
society. This ignorance and disregard had run them into 
great excesses, which terminated in a bloody civil war, and 
the loss of public liberty. But as our author thought that to 
be retrievable after the death of Julius Caesar, he applied 
himself to digest, into a regular system, all that lay scattered 
in his own and the Greek writings, concerning the moral and 
relative duties of mankind. His great character amongst his 
countrymen for learning and erudition, soon made this work 
to be the standard of all the moral duties, and to this day it 
continues to be appealed to and decisive. It is, in short, the 
ground work of all that Grotius, Puffendorff, Cumberland, 
Woolaston, and thousands of other writers have laid down con- 
cerning the public and private duties of mankind. 

The circumstance of addressing it to his son, was a happy 
one. For it freed him from all manner of constraint, both in 
jhis style and sentiments, and there runs through the whole an 

B 



2 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

ease and freedom that no other writer has yet equalled, and is 
to be found in none, even of our author's other works. 

With regard to the title, the reader may, if he pleases, 
consult what has been said concerning it by our author, in his 
Epistles to Atticus, Ep. 13. Lib. xv. but after all, I own I 
should be better pleased with the English title of The Whole 
Duty of Man, had not our author objected to it. . 



BOOK I. 

Marcus, my Son, 

I. You have, it is true, for a year, been study- 
ing under Cratippus,* and that too at Athens ;f 
therefore you are doubtless well furnished with 

* Cratippus.'] This philosopher was greatly prized, both by 
our author and his son, for his excellence in philosophy. He 
was a native of Mitylenae, and by Cicero's recommendation, 
was raised by the Areopagus at Athens, to be what we may 
call head professor of philosophy in their schools. 

t At Athens^ Cicero seems (with reason), to lay a stress 
upon this circumstance, the propriety of which may escape 
the vulgar observation. It is certain, that the reputation and 
dignity of a place suck as Athens was, furnished with every 
object that could awaken, fire, or correct the ideas, and with 
all conveniencies for study, must make a very advantageous 
impression upon the mind. Add to this, that the ancients 
ascribed a physical quality to the air of Athens, which they 
said was so pure, that it whetted and refined the understanding. 
Athenis (says our author in Lib. de Fato), tenue Caelum; ex 
quo, acutiores etiam putantur Attici. Crassum Thebis, itaque 
pingues Thebani et valentes. < f At Athens the air is pure, by 
which its inhabitants are esteemed to be uncommonly 
penetrating y at Thebes, it is thick, and hence the Thebans 
are reckoned to be heavy and strong." 



CICERO's OFFICES. 



the rules and principles of philosophy ; the 
character both of the master and the city being 
so high ; the one improving you by his learning, 
the other by its examples. Notwithstanding all 
those advantages, as I, for my own improvement, 
have joined the study of Latin to that of Greek 
erudition, not only in philosophy, but even in 
the practice of speaking, I recommend to you 
the same method, that you may excel equally in 
the exercises of both. In this respect, at least, 
if I mistake not, I was of great service to our 
countrymen, so that not only such of them as are 
ignorant of Greek learning, but even men of 
letters amongst them, think they have profited 
somewhat by me both in speaking and reasoning. 
Therefore you may study, nay, study as long 
as you incline, under the best philosopher of 
this age, and you ought to incline it, as long as 
you are sensible that you improve ; but you are 
to read my works which are not very different 
from the principles of the Peripatetics,* because 
I aim at a coalition of the Socratic, with the 
Platonic sect. As to the conclusions you are to 
form, I leave them entirely to your own j udgment ; 
but take my word for it, you will, by reading my 

* The Peripatetics^ Our author here lays aside the didactic 
air which he assumes in the other parts of his philosophical 
works. There he wants to shine, but here he strives to in- 
struct, and therefore talks very soberly, that he wants to 
select what is best from every sect of philosophy, and to follow- 
that. 

b2 



4 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

writings, render your Latin style more copious. 
You are not to imagine that this is ostentation 
in me, for while I yield the superiority in phi- 
losophy to many, I think I do no more than 
assert what is my own right, if I claim, to my- 
self, the province peculiar to an orator, that of 
speaking with propriety, perspicuity, and ele- 
gance ; a study, in which I have spent my days. 
Therefore, my dear Cicero, I most earnestly 
recommend to your careful perusal, not only my 
Orations, but even my philosophical works,* 
which fall very little short of my orations, in 
purity of style. There is, it is true, a higher 
glow of eloquence in the one than in the other, 
but you are to cultivate, at the same time, this 
smooth, this sober manner of expression. And, 
to say the truth, I know none of the Greeks who 
have reconciled the two manners in their 
writings, by practising, at the same time, the 
declamatory, and this argumentative style. If 
there is an exception amongst them, it is 
Demetrius Phalereus, who, though a refined 
reason er, was an enervated speaker ; but yet he 
was insinuating, and by his smoothness, you may 
know him to have studied under Theophrastus. 
How far J have succeeded in both, let others 

* Which fall very little short of my Orations.'] Orig. Qui jam 
illosfere equarunt, which may refer to the number as well as 
the excellence of the works. But 1 have followed the sense 
of Manutius preferably to that of Graevius. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 



determine ; all I can say is, that I have attempted 
both. Mean while, I am of opinion, that Plato 
could have succeeded, had he attempted the 
powerful copious manner that is required in 
speaking to the public ; and had Demosthenes 
retained and repeated the lessons of Plato, he 
would have delivered them with gracefulness 
and beauty. I form the same judgment of 
Aristotle and Isocrates ; but each was so pleased 
with his own manner, that he neglected that of 
the other. 

II. But resolving, at this time, to write to 
you somewhat, and a great deal in time to come, 
I have thought proper to set out with that 
subject which is best adapted to your years, and 
most becoming my authority. For while many 
subjects in philosophy, of great weight and 
utility, have been accurately and copiously 
discussed by philosophers, the most extensive 
seems to be what they have delivered and 
enjoined concerning the duties of mankind. 
For there can be no state of life, public or 
private, abroad or at home ; there can be no 
intercourse between you and me, or between 
me and another, that is without its peculiar duty. 
In the due discharge of that consists all the dig- 
nity, and in its neglect, all the disgrace of life. 

This is a principle, of which all philosophers 
have treated; for where is the man who will 
presume to style himself a philosopher, and lay 



6 CICERO's OFFICES. 

down no rules of duty ? But there are certain 
schools which pervert all duty by the ends of 
good and evil which they propose. For if a 
man should lay down as the chief good, that 
which has no connexion with virtue, and value 
it according to his own private views, and not 
according to its inherent dignity ; if such a 
man, I say, shall act consistently with his own 
principles, and is not sometimes influenced by 
the goodness of his heart, he can be neither 
friendly, just, nor generous ; nay, it is im- 
possible for the man to be brave, who shall pro- 
nounce pain to be the greatest evil, or temperate, 
who shall propose pleasure as the highest good. 
These truths are indeed so self-evident, that 
they require no philosophical discussion, and 
yet I have treated of them elsewhere. I say 
therefore, that if this doctrine is uniform and 
self-consistent, the professors of it can never 
treat of the moral duties. Neither can any firm, 
permanent, or natural rules of duty be laid down, 
but by those who esteem virtue to be the sole, 
or by those who deem her to be the chief object 
of desire. The doctrine of duties, therefore, 
is the peculiar study of the Stoics, of the 
Academics and the Peripatetics ; because the 
sentiments of Aristo, Pyrrho, and Herillus,* 

* Our author has in his Treatise, concerning the ends of 
things good and evil, treated very largely concerning all the 
sects and philosophers mentioned in this place. 



CICEJto's OFFICES. 



have been long exploded. Yet even those 
professors would have been entitled to have 
treated upon the duties of men, had they left, in 
the nature of things, any means of choosing 
what could have guided us to the discovery of 
any one duty. Let us therefore, upon this 
occasion, at least, and upon this subject, chiefly 
follow the Stoics, not as their expositors, but by 
drawing, as usual, from their sources, whatever 
is for our purpose, and in whatever manner we 
please. I therefore think proper, as I propose 
duty as my sole object, to define what a duty is ; 
a definition which I am surprized has been 
omitted by Pansetius; because every principle, 
laid down in reasoning, concerning any subject, 
ought to be preceded by a definition, that the 
subject may be clearly understood. 

III. All questions concerning duty are of two } 
sorts. The first relates to the final good, the 
second consists of those rules which are to 
regulate the practice of life in all its relations. 
Examples of the former are as follow : — Whether 
all duties are perfect in themselves ? Whether 
one duty is of more importance than another ? 
Together with other questions of the same 
nature. Now the rules for moral duties relate, 
indeed, to the final good, but it is not so percep- 
tible that they do, because they seem chiefly 
adapted to the common practice of life, and of 
them, we are to treat in this book. 









8 CICERO's OFFICES. 

But there is another division of duty : one 
probable, the other perfect. If I mistake not, 
the complete or perfect duty is the same with 
what we call a direct one, and by the Greek is 
called Kcwfiop.ct. As to that duty which is pro- 
bable or in common to all mankind, the Greeks 
call it ko&wv, and they thus define those terms. 
Whatever duty is direct, that they call a perfect 
duty, and they call that duty, for the performance 
of which a probable reason can be assigned, a 
probable duty. 

In the opinion, therefore, of Pansetius, there 
is a threefold consideration for determining our 
resolution . For men consider whether the thing 
in question be of itself virtuous or disgraceful, 
and in this deliberation, the mind often falls into 
opposite sentiments. They, then, examine and 
deliberate whether or not the subject of their 
consideration conduces to the utility or enjoy- 
ment of life, to the improvement of their estate 
and wealth, to their interest and power, by which 
they may profit themselves or their relations. 
AH this deliberation falls under the denomi- 
nation of utility. The third head of delibe- 
ration is, when an apparent utility seems to 
clash with virtue. For when utility hurries us 
to itself, and virtue reclaims us, the mind is dis- 
tracted in the choice, and the result of our deli- 
beration is suspended. In this division (not to 
mention that an omission is of the worst conse- 



CICERO'S OFFICES. . 9 

quence in divisions of this kind), two things are 
omitted. For we use to deliberate not only 
upon what is virtuous or shameful in itself, but 
of two things that are virtuous, which is prefer- 
able ? And in like manner, of two things 
which are profitable, which is most so ? Thus, 
in fact, the deliberation which he has made 
threefold only, admits of five divisions. We 
will therefore, first treat of what is virtuous in 
itself, and that under two heads ; in like manner, 
of what is profitable ; and we shall next form 
some estimate of both. 

IV. In the original formation of thing's, all 
living creatures were, by nature, endowed with 
this affection or property, that they cherished 
themselves, their life, or existence : that they 
avoided those things that appeared hurtful to 
them, and that they looked out for, and procured, 
whatever was necessary for their living, such as 
food, shelter, and the like. Now the desire of 
procreating their own species is in common to 
all animals, as is their concern about what is pro- 
created. But the greatest distinction between 
a man and a brute lies in this, that the latter is 
impelled only by instinct, and applies itself 
solely to that object, which is present and before 
it, with little or no marks of sensibility of what 
is past, or is to come. But man, because en- 
dowed with reason, can mark the chain of con- 
sequences ; he looks into the motives of things 




10 CICERO^ OFFICES. 

and their progress, and being acquainted, as it 
were, with what is past, he can draw like con- 
sequences from like causes ; he adopts them to 
what is present, and connects them with what is 
to come. It is easy for him to foresee the future 
direction of all his life, and therefore he pre- 
pares whatever is necessary for carrying him 
through it. 

Nature, likewise, joined to the force of reason, 
habituates mankind to community both in lan- 
guage and in life ; above all, it plants in them a 
V strong love for their offspring ; it impels them to 

meet in companies, to form public assemblies, 
and dictates such actions as duties, which every 
individual is to fulfil. For those reasons, man 
takes care to provide for the decent, as well as 
the necessary, supports of life ; and that, not only 
for himself, but for his wife, his children, and 
for all who have a right to his love or protec- 
tion. This is an affection, which awakens every 
faculty of the mind, and enlarges its abilities for 
action. 

The distinguishing property of man is to 
search for, and to follow after, truth. There- 
fore, when relaxed from our necessary cares and 
concerns, we then covet to see, to hear, and to 
learn, somewhat ; and we esteem knowledge, of 
things either obscure or wonderful, to be the in- 
dispensable means of living happily. From 
this, we understand that truth, simplicity, and 






CICERo's OFFICES. 11 

candour, are most agreeable to the nature of 
mankind. To this passion for discovering truth, 
is added a desire to direct ; for a mind, well 
formed by nature, is unwilling to obey any man, 
but him, who lays down rules and instructions 
to it, or who, for the general advantage, exer- 
cises equitable and lawful government. From 
this proceeds magnanimity and disregard for 
grovelling considerations. 

Neither is it a mean effort of nature and 
reason, that man is the only animal, who is j^ 
sensible of order, of decency, and of proper fit- \/^ 
ness, both in acting and speaking ; therefore no k ^}* 
other creature perceives the beauty, the grace- 
fulness and the harmony of parts, in those ob- 
jects which are discerned by the sight. This is 
an idea which nature and reason conveys from 
the sight to the mind, and she is still more 
tender in cherishing beauty, regularity, and 
order in councils, and actions ; she is unwilling 
to do ought that is indecent, or effeminate, or to 
act, or think wantonly, in any occurrence of life, 
either when we deliberate or execute. The 
effect and result of all this, produces that hones- 
turn which we are now in search of ; that virtue 
which is honourable without being ennobled ; 
which, were it admired by none, would be lovely 
in itself. 

V. Son Marcus, you here perceive, at least, a 
sketch, and, as it were, the outline of virtue; 






12 CICERO's OFFICER. 

could we perceive her with our bodily eyes,* 
her beauties would, as Plato says, raise within us 
the strongest love of wisdom. But whatever is 
virtuous must arise from some one of those four 
y^ v . divisions. For it must consist either in the 
perception of, and perseverance in, truth ; or in 
cultivating society, by giving to every man his 
due, and by punctually observing the moral obli- 
gations ; or it must consist in the greatness and 
firmness of an elevated and unsubdued mind ; or 
in observing order and regularity, in all our 
words, and in all our actions, by which we attain 
to moderation and temperance. 

Though those four divisions are connected, 
and interwoven with one another, yet certain 
kinds of duties arise from each of them. As for 
instance : in that part which I first described, 
and under which I comprehend sagacity or 
wisdom, consists the search after, and discovery 
of, truth ; and this is the characteristical quality 
of that virtue. For the man who is most saga- 
cious in discovering the real truth in any subject, 

* Our bodily eyes.~\ This is a fine and a celebrated senti- 
ment of Plato. O^r? (says he in his Phedro) v[mv h^vrarn vuv 
hot tS a-upccr©* s%X STail «^^<7£<y», h (p^ovn en; xxogccTcu, otivag ycig 
civ 'Bru^tT^eiv sgaras, el tojbtoi/ I«urij£ Ivocgyeg tlbahov <sroc^ti^ero elq 
o>|/*s iov. " Our eyesight (says he) is the most exquisite 
" of our senses 5 yet, it does not serve us to discern wisdom ; 
" if it did, what a glow of love would she kindle within us V 
The reader, may perhaps observe, with what propriety Cicero 
applies to virtue, what Plato says of wisdom. 



CICERO's OFFICES. 13 

and who can, with the greatest perspicuity and 
quickness, both see and explain the reasons that 
are to support it, has a right to be esteemed a 
man of the greatest understanding and discern- 
ment. From hence it follows, that truth is, as it 
were, the subject matter that directs and em- 
ploys this virtue. As to the other three virtues, 
they necessarily consist in acquiring and pre- 
serving those indispensable circumstances, which 
constitute civil and social life, in order to pre- 
serve the community and relations of mankind, 
and to display that excellence and greatness of 
soul, which exerts itself in acquiring interests 
and advantages, both to ourselves and to our 
friends; but becomes much more conspicuous 
in properly disregarding them. As to order, 
resolution, moderation, and the like, they come 
into that rank of virtues, which require not only 
an operation of the mind, but a proper degree 
of personal activity. For when we bring the 
occurrences of life, under a rule and regularity,, 
we then preserve virtue and decency. 

VI. Now of the four divisions, under which I 
have ranged the qualities and force of virtue ; 
that which consists in the knowledge of truth 
principally, affects the nature of man. For all 
of us are impelled and carried along to the love 
of knowledge and learning, in which we account 
it glorious to excel; but consider every slip, 
mistake, ignorance, and deception in it, to be 



14 CICERo's OFFICES. 

hurtful and shameful. In this pursuit, which is 
both natural and virtuous, two faults are to be 
avoided. The first not to presume that we know 
things which we do not know, and thereby 
rashly give them our assent. Every man ought 
to wish to avoid this error, and therefore he must 
apply both with leisure and industry to the study 
of things. 

The other fault is, that some people bestow 
too much study and pains upon things that are 
obscure,* difficult, and even immaterial in 
themselves. When those faults are avoided, all 
the pains and care a man bestows upon studies 
that are virtuous in themselves, and worthy of 
his knowledge, have a claim to our highest 
regard. Thus we have heard how Caius 
Sulpiciusf excelled in astronomy, and Sextus 

* Upon things that are obscure.'] The emperor Antoninus 
very finely thanks the gods, that when he applied to the study 
of philosophy, he was taught by Junius Rusticus, to avoid this 
error. Toi/ £?j Ictvrov' onus IrtQvfAvicrK (pvhoao(pici$. yM \\tsni<Tw stj 
Ttva cro<I>»r>jy [W& aPvtwuuNvfftu. vtci t«? <?W)$yotty£$ % cv^oyia-fxai; uvcc- 
Xt/En>, rt irtqi r» f&trsuQoKoyMCL aa,rciymaQcn : (f That when I applied 
<e my mind to the study of philosophy, I did not meet with a 
" Sophist for my instructor, neither did I spend my time in 
<f reading mean authors, nor was I embarrassed by the useless 
" studies of astrology." 

f Sulpicius.'] We have in the Roman history, a remarkable 
story of this nobleman, by which we may see the excellent 
effects of learning in a man of consideration, who knows how 
to time it well. For we are told, that while he served against 
the Macedonians, under Julius iEmilius, he foretold to the 



CICERO'S OFFICES. • 15 

Pompeius,* to my own knowledge, was a great 
mathematician ; I have known many who were 
eminent in logic, and more who were so in the 
civil law, all which are arts that serve to in- 
vestigate truth ; but our duty forbids us to be 
diverted, by pursuing her, from carrying on our 
proper concerns, because the whole glory of 
virtue consists in activity. Yet this is often 
intermitted, and frequent are our returns to our 
studies. Then, there is a certain incessant 
working of the mind, which, without our taking 
pains is sufficient to keep us in the practice of 
thinking. Now, all thought and every motion 
of the mind consists in the pursuit of virtuous 
actions, or such as relate to the enjoyment of a 
good and a happy life ; or else in the pursuits of 
science and knowledge. I have now treated of, 
at least, the first source of duty. 

VII. As to the other three, the most extensive 
system is that, by which the mutual society of 
mankind, and, as it were, the intercourse of life 
is preserved. It may be divided into two parts, 
honesty or justice, in which courage displays 

Roman soldiers an eclipse, and explained its causes, and 
thereby prevented the consternation they otherwise would have 
fallen into, and which seizing the enemies, they were easily 
routed by the Romans. 

t Sextus Pompeius.'] He was uncle to Pompey the Great, 
and is celebrated upon other occasions by our author, for his 
great knowledge in geometry, and the doctrine of the Stoics. 






16 CICBRO's OFFICES. 

itself with the most distinguished lustre, and 
from which men are termed good. To this is 
joined beneficence, which may likewise be 
termed benevolence or liberality. Now the 
chief property of honesty is, that no person 
hurt another, unless he is provoked* by suffering 
wrong; next, that public property be appro- 
priated to public, and private to private, good. 
Now, by nature,-)* there is no such thing as 

* Unless he is provoked.] Though some well-meaning 
Christian divines have found fault with the un Christianity of 
this passage, yet it is not irreconcilable with the doctrines of 
the gospel, or the practice of our holy religion. Because, if a 
man has it in his power to do good to many, by the just punish** 
ment of one, who, by injuring him with impunity, would set 
a most pernicious example to the society, if he does not do it, 
he acts against the first principles of Christianity. The 
Christian doctrine therefore against revenge, regards that kind 
of revenue that proceeds (which frequently happens), from 
personal or private resentment, and which the wisest and best 
of the heathens discouraged even in a just cause, because it 
becomes destitute of justice, by not profiting society through 
the example. Dictat autem ratio Homini (says Grotius, dejure 
Belli ac Paris, L 2. Cap. 20. § 5) nihil agendum quod noceatur 
homini alteri, nisi id borium habeat aliquid propositum. In solo 
autem inimici dohre, ita nude spectato, nullum est bonum nisi 
falsum et imaginarium. te Now reason tells men, that we 
*< should do no hurt to another man, unless it is to serve some 
" good end. For from the mere pain of another person, 
» there can result no good but what is mistaken and imaginary.'* 
Vid. plura in hoc. cit. 

f Now by nature.'] Grotius, Dejure Belli ac Paris, Lib. 2. 
Cap. 2. has largely explained all that is here laid down by our 
author. 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 17 

exclusive property : all that can be pleaded for it 
is, ancient possession (as when men formerly 
came into unoccupied territories), or victory (as 
possessing it in right of conquest), or public 
constitution, paction, terms, or lot. By those the 
land of Arpinum is belonging to the Arpinates, 
the Tusculan to the Tusculans. The like 
division holds with regard to matters of private 
property. Thus, as every man holds his own, 
each possesses that portion which fell to his 
share of those things that by nature were 
common ; and it follows, that no man can covet 
another's property, without violating the laws of 
human society. 

But (as Plato says very nobly) as we are not 
born for ourselves alone, and as our country 
claims her share, and our friends their share in )VA ^ 
our existence ; and, as the Stoics hold, all that 
the earth produces is created for the use of man, 
somen are created for one another, that they 
may mutually do good to one another. In this 
we ought to take nature for our guide, to throw 
into the public stock the offices of general utility, 
by interchanging our duties ; sometimes, by 
receiving, sometimes, by giving; and sometimes 
to cement human society by arts, by industry, 
and by abilities. 

Now honesty is founded upon faithfulness, 
which is a perseverance and truth in all we say 
and in all we promise. Let us therefore (though 



18 cicero's offices. 

some people may think it overdoing the matter) 
imitate the Stoics, who curiously examined the 
derivation of the word jfcfesor faithfulness, and 
let us take it for granted that it is no other than 
a performance* of what we have promised. 
But there are two kinds of dishonesty, the first 
is of those who offer an injury, the second, of 
those who have it in their power to avert an in- 
jury from those to whom it is offered, and yet do 
it not. For, if a man,j- prompted either by 
anger or any sudden start of passion, unjustly 
assaults another man, or seems, as it were, to 
lay violent hands on his neighbour, the man 
who does not repel or withstand the injury, if he 
can, is as much to blame as if heforsook his 
parents, his friends, or his country. 

Those injuries, however, which are indus- 
triously inflicted, often proceed from fear; as 
for instance, when a man, who is contriving to 
injure another, is afraid, unless he executes what 
he is meditating, that he may himself meet with 

* Performance. Our author from other parts of his works, 
seems to be serious in deriving the word Fides, Quia fiat quod 
dictum est. He has been ridiculed for this fanciful derivation 
by his modem commentators, who have recommended that of 
Salmasius, but I don't know whether it mends the matter. 
Foreigners, says he, (De UsurisJ pronounced the Greek word 
wMT*s, wwrtf, and hence came the word Fides. 

t For if a man."] There seems to be some mistake in the 
original here, but the author's sense is plainly as I have trans- 
lated it. 



CICFJto's OFFICES, 19 

some misfortune. But the great incentive to 
doing wrong, is to obtain what one desires, and 
in this crime, avarice is the ruling passion. 

VIII, Now riches are sought after, both for 
the necessary purposes of life, and for the enjoy- 
ment of pleasure. When ambition is predomi- 
nant in a man, he covets money in order to 
strengthen his interest, and oblige his friends. 
As we lately heard M. Crassus say, that no man 
who wanted to have a direction in the govern- 
ment, could be said to have money enough, 
unless the interest of it could maintain an army. 
Men likewise in their equipages, love magni- 
ficence with elegance, and in living, they affect 
politeness with plenty ; and hence, their desire 
for money becomes boundless. There may be, 
indeed, in man, a desire to improve his private 
fortune which is far from being blameable ; but 
still he ought to avoid doing injury to any other 
person. 

But the mighty cause why most men are seized 
with a forgetfulness of honesty or justice, is 
when they stumble upon a violent ambition after 
empire, honours, and glory. Here what Ennius 
observes, is remarkably verified :— 

Through the thirst of empire, 
All ties of friendship and of faith are broke. 

For where the object of ambition is of such a 
nature, as that several, at the same time, cannot 
succeed, the contest for it is generally so violent, 

c2 



20 

that nothing can be more difficult than to pre- 
serve the sacred ties of society. We had lately 
a glaring instance of this in the presumption of 
C. Caesar, who, in order to obtain that direction 
in the government which the wildness of his 
imagination had planned out, violated all laws, 
divine and human. But what is most deplorable 
under this head, is, that the desire after honour, 
empire, and glory, is generally prevalent in the 
greatest soul, and the most exalted genius ; for 
which reason every crime of that sort is the 
more carefully to be guarded against. But in 
every species of injustice, it is very material to 
examine whether it is committed through a start 
of passion, which commonly is short lived, or 
from deliberate, prepense, malice. For what- 
ever proceeds from a short, sudden fit, is of 
slighter moment than what proceeds from fore- 
thought and preparation. But enough has been 
said concerning inflicting injury. 

IX. To proceed ; various are the causes of 
men omitting, or forsaking, their duty. They 
may be unwilling to encounter enmity, toil or 
expense, or perhaps they do it through negli- 
gence, listlessness, or laziness ; or they are so em- 
barrassed in certain studies and pursuits, that 
they suffer those, they ought to protect, to be 
abandoned. This leads me to doubt somewhat 
of the justness of Plato's compliment to philo- 
sophers : " That they are men of integrity, 



CICERo's OFFICES. 21 

because they aim only at truth, and despise and 
neglect those considerations which others value, 
and which generally set mankind at variance, 
amongst themselves. " For, while they abstain 
from doing injury to others, they indeed assert 
one species of honesty or justice, but they fail 
in another ; because they are so entangled in the 
pursuits of learning, that they abandon those 
they ought to protect. Some therefore think, 
that they would have no concern with the govern- 
ment, unless they were forced to it ; but still, it 
would be more commendable, if they were to 
undertake it voluntarily. For even this, though 
a right thing in itself, is commendable only when 
it is voluntary. There are others who either ; pM^ 
from a desire to improve their private fortune, 
or from some personal resentments pretend that 
they mind their own affairs, only that they may 
appear not to wrong their neighbours. Now 
such persons in avoiding one kind of dishonesty 
strike upon another : because they abandon the 
fellowship of life by employing in it, none of 
their zeal, none of their labour, none of their 
abilities. Having thus stated the two kinds of 
dishonesty or injustice, and assigned the motives 
for each kind, and settled previously the proper 
requisites of honesty or justice, we may easily 
(unless we are extremely selfish) form a judg- 
ment of our duty on every occasion. 

For, to concern ourselves in other people's 



22 oicero's offices. 

affairs, is a delicate matter. Yet Chremes* a 
character in Terence, thinks, that there is nothing 
that can befa mankind in which he does not 
think he has a concern. Meanwhile, because 
we have the quicker perception and sensation of 
whatever happens unfavourably or untowardly 
to ourselves, than to others, which we see as it 
were at a greater distance, the judgment we 
form of them is very different from what we 
form of ourselves. ! It is therefore a right maxim, 
to do nothing when you are doubtful whether it 
is honest or unjust ; for whatever is honest is 
self-evident, but doubt implies suspicion of 
injustice. 

X, But upon certain occasions, it frequently 
happens, that those duties which form the cha- 
racteristics of an honest and a worthy man, are 
altered and changed to their contraries. For 
example, to return a deposit, to perform a pro- 
mise, and other matters that are relative to truth 
and honesty, sometimes alter so much through 
circumstances, that it is just they should not 
be observed. For it is proper to have recourse 
to those fundamentals of honesty which I have 
already laid down ; in the first place, that of in* 
juring no person ; and secondly, that of being 
subservient to the public good. When there is 
an alteration in circumstances, the complexion 
of the duty is changed likewise, for it is not un- 
alterable. 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 23 

A promise as a paction may happen to be 
made, the performance of which may be prejudi- 
cial either to the party promising, or to the party 
to whom the promise is made. For (as we see in 
the play)* had not Neptune performed his promise 
to Theseus, the latter would not have lost his son, 
Hippolitus. For we are told, that of three 
wishes to be granted him, the third, which he 
made in a passion, was the death of Hippolitus, 
which, when it was granted, threw him in the 
most dreadful agonies. Therefore you are not 
to perform those promises which may be preju- 
dicial to the party to whom you promise : nor if 
they may be more hurtful to you than they can 
be serviceable to him. It is inconsistent with 
our duty, not to prefer the greater obligation to 
the less. For instance, suppose you should 
promise to appear in court in favour of another 
person while his cause is depending ; now, if 
your son was to be seized violently ill, in the mean 
time, it would be no breach of duty in you not 
to perform what you promise ; the other person 
would rather be guilty of that breach, if he 
should complain that he was given up. Having 
said thus much, there can be no manner of 
doubt, that a man is not bound by those promises 
which he makes either under the influence of 
fear, or through the seduction of deceit. Many 
such promises are cancelled by the edict of the 

* Play.] Written by Eurypides. 



1 



24 CICERo's OFFICES. 

praetor's court, some by general acts of the 
legislature* For Very often a man may be 
wronged by a wrong representation of the fact ; 
and by a too artful, but malicious, construction 
of the law. Hence, ' the rigour of law, is the 
rigour of injustice,' is a saying that is now 
worn into a proverb. We have known many 
scandalous things of this kind happen, even in 
the occurrences of government. Thus, when 
a general had concluded a truce with his 
enemy for thirty days, yet ravaged that enemy's 
territories every night, because the truce was 
only for so many days, without any mention 
of nights. Nor indeed is the conduct of our 
countryman, Quintus Fabius Labeo, to be ap- 
proved of, or, whoever he was (for I have 
the story only by report), who being appointed 
an arbiter by the senate, to settle a boundary 
between the people of Nola, and those of Naples, 
counselled each of those people, severally, to do 
nothing that might look like greediness or 
forwardness, and that each ought rather to draw 
back than advance. Both of them taking this 
advice, a space of unoccupied ground was left 
in the middle. He therefore adjudged to each 
people, the boundary to which they had confined 
themselves, and all that was in the middle, to 
the people of Rome. This was not a judgment, 
but a gross cheat, and we ought to avoid all 
tricks of that kind in all our transactions. 



CICEKO's OFFICE*. 25 

XI. Certain duties are to be observed, even 
towards those who have wronged you. For 
there is a mean even in revenge and punish- 
ments. Nay, I am not certain whether it is not 
sufficient for the person who has injured you to 
repent of what he has done, so that he may 
never be guilty of the like to come ; and may be 
a warning for others not be so forward to offend 
in the same manner. Now, in government, the 
laws of war are to be punctually observed ; for 
there were two manners of disputing, one by 
debating, the other by fighting ; the former 
characterises men, the latter brutes ; but if the 
former fails, recourse must be had to the latter. 
Wars, therefore, are to be undertaken, that we 
may live in peace, without being injured. But 
when we obtain the victory, we must preserve 
those enemies who behaved without cruelty or 
inhumanity during the war : for example, our 
forefathers received, even as members of their 
state, the Tuscans, the iEqui, the Volscians, the 
Sabines, and the Hernici, but utterly destroyed 
Carthage and Numantia. I am unwilling to ^ 
mention Corinth, but I believe they had some 
motive, and particularly, they were induced to 
destroy it, lest the advantages of its situation 
should invite the inhabitants to make war in 
future times. In my poor opinion, we ought 
always to hearken to peace, where it is fair, and 
without deceit and subterfuge. > Had my voice 



26 cicero's offices. 

been followed on this head, we might still have 
had some form of government (though perhaps 
none of the best), whereas, now, we have none. 
If we are to regard those enemies whom we 
conquer by strength, we are likewise to protect 
those who throw themselves upon the honour jof 
our general, and lay down their arms, even 
though the battering rams should have struck 
their walls. In this respect, the Roman govern- 
ment so scrupulously observed the rules of 
justice, that it was a custom among our ances- 
tors, that they who received, under their pro- 
tection, cities, or nations conquered in war, 
became their patrons. 

Now the justice of war was most religiously 
pointed out by the ceremonial law* of the 
Romans. From that we are given to understand, 
that no war is just, unless it is undertaken to 
reclaim property, f or unless it is solemnly de- 

* Ceremonial law .3 Orig. Faciali jure, I don't know that 
we have a proper English term for this law. The powers of 
the College of the Faeciales came the nearest of any thing we 
have in England, to those of the earl marshal, and some 
branches of it still remain with the college of heralds. Their 
institution, however, as appears by this and other parts of our 
author's works, was far from being only ceremonial ; for they 
were the judge of the sense of treaties, of the justice of peace 
and war 5 and they were amongst the oldest orders in Rome, 
being instituted by Numa Pompilius. 

t To reclaim property, #c] The formal and public de- 
claration of war, was an indispensable preliminary to it among 
the Romans. This declaration was either conditional or 



cicero's off-ices. 2? 

nounced and proclaimed beforehand. Popilius, 
When a general, held a province where Cato's 
son served in his army ; it happened that Popilius 
thought proper to reduce the legion in which he 
served, and he dismissed Cato's son at the same 
time. The young man, however, liked a military 
life so well, that he remained in the army. But 
his father wrote to Popilius, that if he suffered 
him to continue in the army, he should for a 
second time give him the military oath ; because 
being free from the first, he could not lawfully 
fight with the enemy. * <J 

So very exact were they in matters of warfare. ^ 
In the letter which old Cato wrote to his son on 
this occasion, he tells him, " That he heard he 
had got his discharge from the consul, while he 
was serving as a soldier in Macedonia, during 
the war with Perseus ; he therefore enjoins him 
to take care not to enter upon action ; because it 
was not lawful for a man who is not a soldier, to 
fight with an enemy/** 

simple. The conditional was, when it was made cum rerum 
repetitione, which sometimes not only implied satisfaction for 
property, but punishment upon the offender. A simple decla- 
ration was without any condition, as when an injury could 
not be repaired j or when war was first declared by the other 
party. See Grotius, Lib. III. Chap. 3. Dejure Belli, #c. 

* Enemy.'] This is a very extraordinary story, and shows the 
difference between the ancient and modern way of making 
war. I am not sure, however, whether there is not somewhat 
too scrupulous in old Cato's delicacy. No war can be just, 



28 ClCERo's OFFICES. 

XII, And indeed there is one thing very 
remarkable, that a principal in war, with us, is 
called a Hostis, and thereby the softness of the 
appellation, lessons the horror of the thing. For 
our ancestors called those H6stis whom we call 
strangers. This can be proved by expressions 
from the twelve tables ; for instance, ' a day 
appointed for the Hostis to plead;' and again, 
' a Roman's right of property against a Hostis 
never prescribes/ What can be more completely 
polite than this ? To call those with whom you 
were at war, by so soft an appellation ? It is 
true that length of time has affixed an harsher 
signification to this word, which is now never 
applied to the stranger, but to him who carries 
arms against us. 

Meanwhile, when we fight for empire, and 
when we seek glory in arms, all those grounds of 
war which I have already enumerated to be just 
ones, must absolutely enter into such a war. 
But wars that are founded upon the glory of 
conquest alone, are to be carried on with less 
rancour. Thus we treat a fellow-citizen in a 
different manner as a foe, than we do, as an 
antagonist. As the latter, the struggle is for 

but what is undertaken for the public good, in which every 
man is a party ; and though a military oath is necessary for 
preserving discipline and subordination, yet every man is 
justified, upon general principles, in acting, even offensively, 
against the enemies of his country. 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 29 

glory and power, as the former for life and 
reputation. Thus we fought against the 
Celliberians : we fought against the Cinbrians, 
as against enemies ; the question was not who 
should command, but who should exist. We 
fought for command against the Latines, the 
Sabines, the Samnites, the Carthagenians, and 
Pyrrhus; the Carthagenians, 'tis true, were 
faithless, and Hannibal was cruel, but the others 
were better principled. The speech of Pyrrhus 
about ransoming the captives, is a fine one, and 
to our purpose : — 

In war not crafty, but in battle bold, 

No wealth I value, and I spurn at gold. 

Be steel the only metal shall decree 

The fate of empire, or to you or me. 

The gen'rous conquest be by courage try'd, 

And all the captives on the Roman side, 

I swear, by all the gods of open war, 

As fate their lives, their freedom I will spare. 

This sentiment is truly noble, and worthy the 
blood of the Eacidae. 

XIII. Nay, if even private persons should, 
upon certain emergencies, make a promise to 
the enemy, they ought to observe it. Thus 
Regulus,* when he was made a prisoner by the 
Carthagenians, in the first Punic war, being sent 
to Rome to treat of an exchange of prisoners, 
he swore that he would return. The first thing 

* Regulus.'] This passage is I think a strong proof that the 
story of Regulus is not, as some would have it, a meer fiction. 



30 cicero's offices. 

he did when he came to Rome, was to deliver 
his opinion in the senate against the exchange, 
and after that, when his relations and friends 
sought to detain him, he chose to deliver himself 
up to a cruel death, rather than to falsify his 
word to the enemy.* 

With regard to the second Punic war ; after 
the battle of Cannae, Hannibal sent ten Romans 
to Rome, under an oath that they would return 
to him, unless they procured the prisoners to be 
ransomed. But the censors disfranchised and 
mulcted *in an annual fine, as long as they lived, 
all of them that were perjured, as well as him 
who devised an evasion of his oath. For when, 
by the leave of Hannibal, he had left the camp, 
he returned soon after, under pretext of having 
forgot somewhat, and then again leaving the 
camp, he pretended that he was free from the 
obligation of his oath, which he was with regard 
to the words, but not the meaning of it. For 
the moral obligation lies in the sense, and not 
in the words of an oath. But our forefathers set 
us a most eminent example of justice towards 
an enemy. For when a deserter from Pyrrhus, 
offered to the senate to despatch that prince by 
poison, the senate and C. Fabricius delivered 
the traitor up to Pyrrhus. Thus they dis. 

* This section is not admitted to be genuine, and in the 
original it is distinguished by different characters. 



CICERO's OFFICES. 31 

approved of taking off by treachery, an enemy 
who was powerful, and was carrying on against 
them an unprovoked war. 

Having said thus much of the warlike duties, 
I must put you in mind, that justice is due even 
to the lowest of mankind ; and nothing can be 
lower than the condition and fortune of a slave. 
And yet it is no unreasonable rule to put them 
upon the same footing as hired labourers, oblige 
them to do their work, but to give them their 
dues. Now, as injustice may be done two ways, 4>** L ' 
by force or fraud ; fraud is the property ,of a fox, a** 
force of a lion ; both are utterly repugnant to 
society, but fraud is the most detestable. But in 
the whole system of villany, the capital villain is 
he who, in practising the greatest crimes, de- ^^ 
ceives under the mask of virtue. 

XIV. Having thus treated of justice, let me , ^v^ 
now, as I proposed, speak of beneficence and 
liberality, virtues, that are the most agreeable to 
the nature of man, but they are to be practised 
with great circumspection. For, in the first 
place, we are to take care lest our kindness 
should hurt both those whom it is meant to assist, 
and others. In the next place, it ought not to 
exceed our abilities ; and it ought to be adapted 
to the deserts of the object. This is the funda- 
mental of justice to which all I say here is to 
refer. For they who do kindnesses which prove 
of disservice to the person they pretend to oblige, 



32 CICEfto's OFFICES. 

are neither beneficent nor generous, but exe- 
crable sycophants. And they who injure one 
party in order to be liberal to another, are guilty 
of the same dishonesty, as if they should appro- 
priate to themselves what belongs to another. 

Now, many, and they especially who are the 
most ambitious after grandeur and glory, rob 
one party to enrich another ; and account them- 
selves generous to their friends if they enrich 
them at any rate. This is so far from being 
, consistent with, that nothing can be more con- 
trary to, .our duty . Let us therefore still practise 
that kind of generosity that is serviceable to our 
friends, but hurtful to none. Upon this principle, 
when Lucius Sylla and Caius Caesar took pro- 
perty from its just owners, and transferred it to 
others, in so doing they ought not to be ac- 
counted generous ; for nothing can be generous 
that is not just. 

Our next part of circumspection is, that our 
generosity never should exceed our abilities. 
For they who are more generous than their cir- 
cumstances admit of, are guilty of a capital 
error, by wronging their relations ; because they 
bestow upon strangers those means which they 
might, with greater justice, give, or leave, to 
their relations. Now a generosity of this kind 
is generally attended with a lust to ravish and to 
plunder, in order to be furnished with the means 
to give away. For it is easy to observe, that 



CICERo's OFFICES. 33 

most of them are not so much by nature generous, 
as they are misled by a kind of pride to do a 
great many things to get themselves the character 
of being generous, and this kind of generosity 
is not so much the effect of principle, as of 
ostentation. Now such a disguise of disposition 
is more nearly allied to vanity than to generosity 
or virtue. 

The 'third head of circumspection I proposed 
to treat of, was, that in our generosity we should 
have regard to merit ; and consequently examine 
both the morals of the party to whom we are 
generous, and his disposition towards us, to- 
gether with the general good of society, and how 
far he may have already contributed to our own 
utility. Could all those considerations be united, 
it were the more desirable, but the object, in 
whom is united the most numerous, and the 
most important of them, ought with us to have 
the preference. 

XV. As society therefore is not composed of 
men who are absolutely perfect and completely 
wise, but of men who have great merit if they 
possess the outlines of worth, we are, I think, 
from thence to infer, that no man is to be neg- 
lected, in whom we can discern the faintest 
character of virtue. Now, our regard for man- 
kind ought to be in proportion as a person is 
adorned with the milder virtues of modesty, 
temperance, and that very justice of which I 

D 



34 CICERO^ OFFICES. 

have so largely treated. These are the virtues 
that characterize a good man ; for, generally 
speaking, resolution and greatness of soul exert 
themselves too impetuously in men who are not 
completely wise and perfect. 

Having said thus much of morals ; with 
regard to the kindness which a person expresses 
for us, our first duty is, to perforin the most for 
him by whom we are most beloved. Now we 
are to judge of kindness, not like giddy, young 
boys, by a fit of love passion, but by its firmness 
and perseverance. But if its merits are such, 
that we are not to court, but to requite the 
kindness, the greater ought our care to be ; for 
there is no duty more indispensable than to pay 
our gratitude where it is due. Now if, as Hesiod 
enjoins, we ought if it is in our power to repay 
a loan with interest, how ought we to act when 
called upon by kindness ? Are we not to imi- 
tate those rich grounds which yield a greater 
crop than they receive seed. For, if we readily 
oblige those, who, we are in hopes, will serve us, 
how ought we to behave towards those who have 
served us already ? For as generosity is of two 
kinds, the one, conferring a favour, the other, 
repaying it : the conferring it is our own option ; 
but the not repaying it is incompatible with the 
character of a good man, providing he can repay 
it without injury to any. We are likewise to 
have regard to the degrees of favours, and 



CICERO^ OFFICES. 35 

doubtless we owe the greatest acknowledgments 
where the greatest kindness is conferred . Mean- 
while we are, above all things, to consider the 
spirit, the zeal, and the meaning with which a 
favour is conferred. For many confer their 
favours through caprice, without any judgment, 
upon all mankind promiscuously, as if influenced 
by a disease, or a sudden whirl of mind, that 
carries them away like a hurricane : such favours 
are not to be rated so high, as those which result 
from judgment, consideration, and constancy. 
But in conferring or requiting kindness, the 
chief rule of our duty ought to be, if all other 
circumstances are equal, to confer most upon the 
man who stands in greatest need of it. The 
reverse of this is practised by the generality, 
who direct their greatest services to the men 
from whom they hope the most, though they 
stand in no need of them. 

XVI. Now society and alliances amongst 
men would be best preserved if the greatest 
benefits were conferred where there is the nearest 
relation. But we ought to go higher if we are 
to investigate the natural principles of inter- 
course and community amongst men. The 
first is, that which is perceived in the society of 
the whole human race, and its chain is formed 
by speech and reason, which by teaching, 
learning, communicating, debating, and j udging, 
conciliate men together, and bind them into a 






36 CICERo's OFFICES. 

kind of natural society. There is nothing in 
which we differ more from the nature of brutes 
than in this; for we very often allow them to 
have courage ; as for instance, horses and lions ; 
but we never admit that they possess justice, 
equity, and goodness ; because they are void of 
reason and speech. Now this is the kind of 
society that is most extensive with mankind 
amongst themselves, and it goes through all ; 
for here a community of all things that nature 
has produced for the common use of mankind, 
is preserved, so as that they may be possessed 
in the manner prescribed by laws and civil 
statutes. But every thing else is to be held 
according to the Greek proverb, " that all 
things amongst friends are to be in common." 
Now this community consists of things which 
are of that nature as is placed by Ennius under 
one head, but may be applied to many. " He 
(says that author) who kindly directs the be- 
wildered traveller in the right road, does as it 
were, light his lamp by his lamp ; which never- 
theless continues to give light to himself after it 
has lighted the other." 

In this single instance, we are sufficiently en- 
joined to perform, even to a stranger, all the 
service we can perform without detriment to our- 
selves. Now the following sayings are common : 
" That we are to debar no man from the running 
stream^' " That we are to suffer fire to be 



CICERo's OFFICES. 37 

kindled at fire ;" " That we are to give faithful 
counsel to a person who is in doubt :" all which 
are particulars that are serviceable to the receiver 
without being detrimental to the bestower. We 
are therefore to practise them and be constantly 
contributing somewhat to the common good. 
As the means, however, of each particular person 
are very confined and the numbers of the indi- 
gent are boundless, our distributive generosity 
ought still to be regulated by the saying of 
Ennius : " it must continue to give light to our- 
selves," that we may still be possesed of the 
to be generous to our friends . 

XVII. Now the degrees of human society 
are many. Not to speak of the unbounded kind 
I have already mentioned, there is one more 
confined, which consists of men of the same 
race, nation, and language, by which, people 
are more intimately connected among them- 
selves. A more contracted society than that< 
consists of men inhabiting the same city, for 
many things in cities are in common, such as 
their forum, their temples, their porticoes, their 
streets, their laws, their rites, their courts of 
justice, their trials, not to mention their customs 
and intimacies, with a great number of particular 
dealings and intercourses amongst themselves. 
There is a still more contracted degree of society 
which is, that of blood, and this closes, in a 
narrow point, the unbounded general association 
of the human race. 






38 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

For, as it is a common natural principle 
among all animated beings, that they have a 
desire to propagate their own species, the first 
principle of society therefore consists in the 
cohabitation of man and wife, the next in 
children, the next in a family within one roof, 
where every thing is in common. This society 
gives rise to the city, and is, as it were, the nur- 
sery of the commonwealth. Next follows the 
connexion of brotherhood, next that of cousins, 
in their different degrees, and when they grow 
too numerous to be contained under one roof, 
they are transplanted to different dwellings, as 
it were to so many colonies. Then follow 
marriages and alliances, by which, our kinsmen 
are multiplied. The descendants, by this pro- 
pagation, give rise to government. But the ties 
and affections of blood bind mankind by the 
most endearing considerations. 

For there is something very powerful in 
having the monuments of our ancestors* the 
same, in practising the same religious rites,-)* and 

* Monuments of our ancestors.'] This was of great efficacy 
amongst the Romans, and the sight of the statutes of their 
ancestors was a powerful incitement to the brave, and a check 
to the wicked. 

t The same religious rites.'] Every great family amongst the 
Romans had certain deities, for whom they had a peculiar re- 
verence, and this gave rise to the different forms of worship 
amongst them. This veneration generally rose from the tra- 
dition of their being descended from, or favoured by, those 
deities. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 39 

in having the same places of burying.* But 
amongst all the degrees of society, none is more 
excellent, none more stable, than, when worthy 
men, through a similarity of manners, are inti- 
mately connected together. For, as I have often 
said, even when we discern the honestumf in 
another, it touches us and makes us friends to 
the man who possesses it. 

Now though virtue, of every kind, attracts and 
charms us to the love of those who possess it, yet 
that love is strongest that is effected by justice and 
generosity. For nothing is more lovely, nothing 
is more binding, than a similarity of manners 
amongst worthy men; because amongst those, 
whose pursuits and pleasures are the same, every 
man is pleased as much with his neighbour, as 
he is with himself ; and that is effected which 
Pythagoras took to be the highest effort of friend- 
ship : "for many become one." A strong com- 

* Places of burying .] The Romans were so religious in this 
respect, that even when they parted with their estates, they 
kept the sepulchres of their ancestors, and a right to a way to 
come at them. 

f Honestum.'] I have not ventured to translate this word, 
because I know no single word in the English language to ex- 
press it. The word virtue does not j because our author 
plainly distinguishes between the honestum and virtus. The 
word honesty in English comes the nearest to it ; but does not 
come up fully to the idea of the honestum, which properly im- 
plies graceful virtue. One of our modern poets, I think, has 
expressed it prettily by calling it the moral verus. 



40 cicero's offices; 

munity is likewise effected by an interchange* 
able course of good offices; which, by being 
mutual and agreeable, cement those together, 
amongst whom they happen, in indissoluble 
bonds of friendship. 

But when we view every thing in the eye of 
reason, of all connexions none is more weighty, 
none is more dear than that between every indi- 
vidual and his country. Our parents are dear to 
us ; our children, our kinsmen, our friends, are 
dear to us ; but our country alone comprehends 
all the dearest endearments* of mankind. What 
good man would hesitate to die for her to do her 
service ? The more execrably unnatural there- 
fore are they who wound their countryf by every 
species of guilt, and who now are, and have 
been employed in her utter destruction. But 
were we to form a computation or an estimate of 
the chief objects of our duty, the principal are 
our country and our parents, to whom we are 
bound by the strongest obligations. The next 
are our children and family, who depend upon us 
alone without having any other refuge. The 
next, our agreeable kinsmen, who generally 
share our fortune in common. The necessary 
supports of life therefore are due chiefly to those 

* Dearest endearments.'] Orig. Omnes omnium charitates. 

t Wound their country.] Our author wrote this soon after 
Caesar's death when Mark Antony was endeavouring to con- 
tinu e his tyranny. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 41 

1 have already mentioned. But the mutual in- 
tercourses of life, counsels, discourses, exhorta- 
tions, consultations, and even sometimes re- 
proaches, are the attributes of friendship, and 
those friendships are the most agreeable that are 
cemented by a similarity of manners. 

XVIII. But in performing all those duties, we 
are carefully to consider the several necessities 
of the objects, and in what every one of them 
can, or cannot serve themselves without us. 
Therefore the ties of blood must sometimes give 
way to the objects of necessity. Some duties 
are owing to some preferably to others. For 
instance, you are sooner to help your neighbour 
to inn his corn,* than your brother or your 
friend ; but in the case of a law-suit, you are to 
take part with your kinsman, or your friend, 
rather than with your neighbour. These con- 
siderations therefore and the like, ought to enter 
into every duty, and we ought to keep ourselves 
in use and practice that we may be able to keep 
the accounts of our duties, and by adding or sub- 
stracting to strike the balance,f.by which we 

* To inn his corn.] The Romans in this respect were very 
neighbourly ; for, from several passages of the ancients it was 
usual for a farmer to summon all his neighbours to help him 
both to cut down and inn his corn. 

t Strike the balance.'] The commentators have raised a 
great dust about this passage in the original, but I think, no- 
thing can be plainer than it should stand as I have translated it. 



42 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

can see the proportion to which every party is 
entitled. • 

But as neither physicians, nor generals, nor 
orators, however perfect they may be in the 
theory of their several arts, can ever perform 
any thing that is great without experience and 
practice: thus, I have laid down rules for the 
observation of duties ; and others have done the 
same, but the importance of the matter demands 
experience and practice* I have now I think 
sufficiently treated of the manner in which the 
honestum which gives the fitness to our duties, 
arises from those matters that come within the 
rights of human society. 

It must be understood, however, at the same 
time, that when the four springs from which 
virtue and honesty arises are laid open, that 
which is done with a great, elevated, and disin- 
terested spirit, will always make the noblest 
figure. Therefore the highest of all reproaches 
is somewhat of the following kind : — 

Young men, ye carry but the souls of women, 
That woman of a man — 

Or somewhat of the following kind : — 

Give me a trophy without toil or danger. 

On the other hand we are, I don't know how it 
is, inspired with a fuller elocution when we 
praise actions performed with magnanimity, 
with fortitude, and virtue. From hence, Ma- 
rathan, Salminse, Platsea, Thermopylae, Leuctra, 



CICERo's OFFICES. 43 

have become the themes of rhetoricians ; and 
amongst ourselves, Codes, the Decii, the two 
Scipiones, Cneius and Publius, Marcus Mar- 
cellus, and a great many others. But above all 
the Roman people in general are distinguished 
by elevation of spirit ; for their fondness for 
military glory appears from their statues being 
generally dressed in warlike habits. 

XIX. But that magnanimity that is discovered 
in being exposed to toil and danger, if not 
founded on justice, and directed to public good, 
but influenced by self-interest, is blameable. 
For so far from being a character of virtue, it 
indicates a barbarity, that is destructive of 
humanity itself. The Stoics, therefore, define 
fortitude rightly, when they call it ' virtue 
fighting on the side of justice/ No man, 
therefore, who has acquired the reputation of 
fortitude, ever attains to glory by deceit and 
malice ; for nothing that is unjust can be 
virtuous. 

Jt is, therefore, finely said by Plato, that as 
the knowledge that is divested of justice, 
deserves the appellation of cunning, rather 
than wisdom, so a mind unsusceptible of fear, if 
animated by private interest, and not public 
utility, deserves the character of audaciousness* 
rather than of fortitude. We, therefore, require* 
that all men of courage and magnanimity should 
be, at the same time, men of virtue and of 



44 CtCERo's OFFICES. 

simplicity, lovers of truth, and enemies to all de- 
ceit : for these are the main characters of justice. 

But there is one disagreeable circumstance, 
that obstinacy, and an undue ambition for 
power, too naturally shoot up from this elevation, 
and greatness of spirit. For, as Plato tells us, 
that all the character of the Lacedemonians was, 
to be fired with a desire to conquer ; thus the 
man who is most distinguished by his mag- 
nanimity, is most animated by the ambition of 
being the leader, or rather the master of all. 
Now it is a difficult matter in a man, who 
desires to excel in every respect, to preserve 
that equanimity, which is the characteristic of 
justice. Hence it is, that they will not suffer 
themselves to be thwarted in a debate, nor by 
any law, either general or constitutional; and 
in public matters they are commonly guilty of 
corruption and faction, in order to strengthen, 
their interest all they can, and they choose to be 
superiors through power, rather than equals in 
justice. But the more difficult the task of 
correcting this abuse is, it is the more glorious ; 
for no exigency can happen, that ought to be 
void of justice. 

They, therefore, who oppose, riot they who 
commit injustice, are to be deemed brave and 
magnanimous. Now genuine and well con- 
ducted magnanimity judges that the honestum 
which is nature's chief aim, consists in realities, 



CICERO's OFFICES. 45 

and not in appearances ; and rather chooses to 
have, than to seem to have a superiority in 
merit. For the man who is swayed by the 
prejudices of an ignorant rabble, is not to be 
rated in the ranks of the great. But the man 
of a spirit the most elevated and the most 
ambitious of glory, is the most easily pushed on 
to acts of injustice. This is a ticklish and a 
slippery situation ; for scarcely can there be 
found a man, who after enduring toils, and 
encountering dangers, does not pant for popu- 
larity, as the reward of his exploits. 

XX. It is certain that a brave and an elevated 
spirit, is chiefly discernible by two characters. 
The first consists in despising the outside of 
things, from this conviction within itself, that a 
man ought to admire, desire, or court nothing 
but what is virtuous and becoming ; and that 
he ought to sink under no human might, nor 
yield to any disorder, either of spirit or fortune. 
The other character of magnanimity is, that 
possessed of such a spirit as I have pointed out, 
you enter upon some undertaking, not only of 
great importance in itself, and of great utility 
to the public, but extremely arduous, full of 
difficulties, and dangerous both to life, and many 
of its concomitants. 

In the latter of those two characters consist 
glory, majesty, and, let me add, utility ; but the 
causes and the efficient means that form great 



46 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

men, is in the former, which contains the 
principles that elevate the soul, and gives it a 
contempt for temporary considerations. Now 
this very excellence consists in two particulars ; 
J, you are to deem that only to be good that is 
virtuous ; and you must be free from all mental 
disorder. For we are to look upon it as the 
character of a noble and an elevated soul, to 
slight all those considerations that the generality 
of mankind account great and glorious, and to 
despise them, upon firm and durable principles; 
while strength of mind and greatness of reso? 
lution is discerned, in bearing those calamities, 
which, in the course of man's life, are many and 
various, so as not to be driven from your natural 
disposition, nor from the character of a wise 
man. For there is great inconsistency in a 
man, if after being proof against fear, he should 
yield to passion ; or if, after surmounting toil, 
he should be subdued by pleasure. It ought, 
therefore, to be a main consideration with us, 
to avoid the love of money ; for nothing so truly 
characterises a narrow, grovelling disposition, 
as avarice does ; and nothing is more noble and 
more exalted than to despise riches, if you have 
them not, and if you have them, to employ them 
in virtuous and generous purposes.* 

* A reader of very ordinary erudition, may easily perceive 
how greatly the best historians and poets amongst the Romans 
were indebted to this and the foregoing chapter, which have 
served as a common place for their finest sentiments. 






CICERO'S OFFICES. 47 

An inordinate passion for glory, as I have^,^^ 
already observed, is likewise to be guarded 
against ; for it deprives us of liberty, the only 
prize for which men of elevated sentiments 
ought to contend. Power is so far from being 
desirable in itself, that it sometimes ought to be 
refused, nay, resigned. We should likewise be 
free from all disorders of the mind, from all y\ 
violent passion and fear, as well as languor, vo- 1/ 
luptuousness, and anger, that we may possess 
that tranquillity and security which are at- 
tended with both uniformity and dignity. Now 
many there are, and have been, who courting 
that tranquillity which I have mentioned here, 
have withdrawn themselves from public affairs 
to take refuge in retirement. Amongst these, 
some of the noblest and most leading of our phi- 
losophers, and some persons of strict and grave 
dispositions, were unable to bear with the man- 
ners either of the people or the directors ; and 
some have lived in the country amusing them- 
selves with the management of their private 
affairs. Their aim was truly royal, that they 
might enjoy their liberty, without wanting any 
thing, or obeying any person; for the charac- 
teristic of liberty is, to live as you incline. 

XXI. Therefore, as it is a maxim in common 
with those who are ambitious for power, and 
with those who court retirement, and whom I 
have just now described, that the former imagine 



48 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

they can enjoy liberty, if they are possessed of 
great interest, and the latter, if they can be con- 
tented with their own, be it ever so little; in 
respect, the sentiments of neither are to be ab- 
solutely rejected. But a life of retirement is 
more easy, more safe, less tiresome, and less 
troublesome than anv other ; while the life of 
those who apply themselves to the affairs of 
government and to the management of a state, is 
more beneficial to mankind, and more con- 
ducive to glory and renown. 

Allowances, therefore, are to be made to those, 
who, having no management in public matters, 
but happy in an excellent genius, give them- 
selves up to learning. And to those who through 
want of health, or for some very weighty reason, 
retire from affairs of government, and leave to 
others, the power and the honour of the ad- 
ministration. But when men, who have none 
of those reasons to plead, say, that they despise 
that power and those offices which most admire; 
such men are so far from deserving praise, that 
they incur censure. It would, it is true, be un- 
just to condemn their despising and under- 
valuing pomp ; but then, they seem to dread the 
toils and troubles of affronts and repulses, as 
containing ignominy and infamy. For some 
there are, who, in opposing qualities, are very 
inconsistent with themselves ; they spurn at 
pleasure, but they droop in pain ; they despise 
pageantry, but sink under unpopularity ; and 



CICERO^ OFFICES. 49 

that too, not greatly to the credit of their repu- 
tation for consistency of character. 

But the men whom nature has endowed with 
qualities for government, ought, laying aside all 
excuses, to undertake the discharge of all public 
offices and the management of state affairs. 
For neither can a state be governed, nor can 
magnanimity display itself by any other means. 
I am not, however, sure whether statesmen 
ought not to be equally elevated in their senti- 
ments as philosophers, if not more so, and im- 
pressed with a contempt of all transitory enjoy- 
ments, and to possess that tranquillity, that calm 
of mind, I have so much recommended ; I mean, 
if they wish to live without anxiety, with dig- 
nity and uniformity. 

This may be the more easily practised by phi- 
losophers, because their lives are less exposed to 
accidents from the strokes of fortune ; because 
their necessities are more contracted, and be- 
cause in case of misfortune their fall will not be 
so severe. It is not, therefore, without reason, 
that the mind is more liable to the violence of 
passion, and mightier matters are to be at- 
tempted by those who undertake the manage- 
ment of public affairs, than by those who are re- 
tired ; they, therefore, ought to possess greater 
elevation of spirit and be more absolutely free 
from disquiets. But, whoever enters upon 
public life, ought to take care that the virtue of 

E 









50 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

a measure be not his sole consideration ; for he 
ought to provide at the same time the means of 
carrying it into execution. In this he is chiefly 
to take care that indolence does not make him 
meanly despond, nor confidence madly presume. 
Thus, in all attempts, we ought to be very assi- 
duous in our preparations. 

XXII. But I must* here combat a prevailing 
opinion that the glory of military exploits is pre- 
ferable to that of civil employments. For many , 
as generally is the case with high minds and en- 
terprising spirits, especially if they take a mili- 
tary turn and are fond of warlike achievements, 
court all opportunities of war from their fond- 
ness for glory. But if we are at the pains to ex- 
amine, many are the employments in civil life of 
greater importance, and of more renown, than in 
military. 

The memory of Themistocles, it is true, has a 
title to fame ; his name is now more illustrious 
than that of Solon, t and his glorious victory at 

* I must.'] It would be an affront to the perspicuity of our 
author's style and sentiments to offer any explanation of what 
he has laid down immediately above, but we cannot help ob- 
serving that, in this chapter, he is unable to controul his 
vanity, or, perhaps, to stifle his jealousy, lest he should not 
appear so considerable as he wished to appear, in the eyes of 
his countrymen. See his Oration for Murzena, where he lays 
down a very different doctrine with very great plausibility. 

f Solon] . Posterity, however, has made Solon ample amends 
as a philosopher, but not in the light in which he is here 
placed as a legislator. 



CICERO's OFFICES. 51 

Salamis is mentioned preferably to the policy of 
Solon by which he first confirmed the power* of 
the Areopagus ; yet must I think that the merits 
of Solon were not inferior to those of Themis- 
tocles. The victory of Themistocles availed his 
country only for once, the policy of Solon avails 
it perpetually ; because, by it the laws of the 
Athenians and the constitution of their country 
are preserved. Now the authority of Themis- 
tocles gave no strength to the Areopagus, but he 
received strength from them ; for the war was 
carried on by the direction of the senate that 
was constituted by Solon. 

We may make the same observation with re- 
gard to Pausanias and Lysander amongst the 
Lacedemonians; for all the addition of empire 

* First confirmed the power. ] Orig. Quo primum constitute 
Areopagus. I own, that I cannot help suspecting that our 
author strains too hard here to carry his favourite point. Any 
man of common knowledge in the Latin tongue, by the ex- 
pression of the original, must conclude that Solon was the 
first who constituted the powers of the Areopagus. Now it is 
most certain, from all history, that the Areopagus was insti- 
tuted by Cecrops, the founder of Athens itself j and that in 
the third year of the forty-sixth Olympiad (about 355 years 
after) when Solon was made archon, he introduced several in- 
novations in the Athenian laws, but (see Arist. Pol. L. 11), 
he approved of the powers of the Areopagus ; and perhaps 
helped to restore it to its antient dignity. In short, I shall beg 
leave to refer the reader to our author's Oration for Muraena for 
a confutation of great part of what he says on this head, 
though it must be owned that there is great weight in his ge- 
neral principle. 

e2 



52 CICERO'jf OFFICES. 

which their conquests are supposed to have 
brought to their country, is not to be compared 
to the laws and economy of Lycurgus, by which 
the armies they commanded were distinguished 
for their discipline and courage. In my eyes 
the merits of Marcus Scaurus* (who flourished 
when I was but a boy), are not inferior to those 
of Caius Marius ; nor after, I came to have a 
concern in the government, thatQuintus Catulus 
deserved less than Cneius Pompeius of his 
country. An army abroad is but of small service, 
without a wise administration at home. Nor 
did that good man and great general, Africanus, 
perform a more important service to his country 
when he razed Numantia, than did that private 
citizen, P. Nasica, when at the same period he 
killed Tiberius Gracchus. An action, which it 
is true, was not merely of a civil nature ; for it 
was partly military, as being the result of force 
and courage ; but it was an action performed 
without an army and from political considera- 
tions. 

That state, described by the following line, is 

Scaurus] This great man owes his reputation with pos- 
terity, in a great measure, to our author, who, upon many oc- 
casions, quoted his example to justify his own conduct. He 
was consul of Rome in the year 646, along with Sergius Sulpi- 
cius Galba, and enacted the laws de swnptibus, de libertinorum 
sufragiis # de Virili Toga, but our author ought to have in- 
formed us, that he was likewise a great general, and had the 
honour of a triumph. 



ClCERo's OFFICES. 53 

best for a country, though I understand that I am 
abused for it by the wicked and malicious: 

Arms, to the gown, and laurels, yield to lore.* 

For, not to mention other instances, when I 
sate at the helm of government, did not " Arms 
yield to the gown ?" For never did our country 
know a time of more threatening danger or 
more profound tranquillity. Yet such was my 
conduct, such was my application, that, in an 
instant, the arms of our most profligate fellow- 
citizens dropt out of their hands. Was ever 
warlike exploits equal to this ? Or what foreign 
conquest can rival its merits ? 

The inheritance of the glory, and the imita- . 
tion of my actions are to descend to you, my son Ijv**^ 
Marcus, therefore I well may be somewhat vain 
with you upon this subject. It is, however, 
certain, that Pompey, who was possessed of every 
military accomplishment, did me the justice to 
say, in the hearing of many, that in vain would 
he have deserved his third triumph, had not my 
public services preserved the place in which he 
was to perform it. The examples of civil 
courage are therefore no less meritorious than 
those of military; and they require a greater 
share of pain and labour. 

XXIII. Now all that honestum which springs 

* Orig. Cedant Arma Toga, concedat Laurea lingua. The 
reader, no doubt, understands that our author is here speaking 
of his conduct in suppressing Cataline's conspiracy. 



54 CICERO's OFFICES. 

from elevation and extent of genius, is abso- 
lutely acquired by the mental, and not by the 
corporeal powers. Meanwhile, the body ought 
to be kept in such action and order, as that it 
may be always ready to obey the dictates of 
reason and wisdom, in carrying them into exe- 
cution, and in persevering under hardships. 
But with regard to that honestum we are treat- 
ing of, it consists wholly in the operations of the 
mind ; by which they who govern, in time of 
peace, are equally serviceable to their country 
as they who command in time of war. For it 
often happens, that by such counsels, wars are 
either not undertaken, or they are finished ; 
sometimes they are even declared; as the third 
punic war was owing to Marcus Cato,* whose 
authority was powerful, even after he was dead. 
Wisdom in determining is therefore pre- 
ferable to courage in fighting ; but in this we are 
to take care that we are not swayed by an aver- 
sion to fighting, rather than by the principles of 
public spirit. Now in war, we ought to make it 
appear that we have no other view but peace. 
But the character of a brave and resolute man is 

* Marcus Cato.~] This was the elder Cato 5 but, Nasica and 
other great men of those days, in Rome, showed themselves 
greater politicians, by their opposing the utter extinction of 
Carthage, because when Rome had no rival to fear (Remoto 
Carthaginis metu, says Paterculus), she plunged into luxury, 
which brought on corruption and all other vices which at 
last ended in the loss of her liberty. 



GIGERO'S OFFICES. 55 

not to be ruffled with adversity, and not to be in 
such confusion, as to quit his post, as we say, 
but to preserve a presence of mind, and the ex- 
ercise of reason, without departing from his pur- 
pose. Such are the properties of a great mind ; 
but those of an elevated extensive genius lead us 
to discern by reasoning what will follow, and to 
determine beforehand what will happen to 
either party ; and, upon that, what measures to 
pursue ; and never be surprised so as to say, 1 1 
did not think of it/ Such are the operations of 
a genius, capacious, elevated, of consummate 
prudence and determined resolution ; but to 
rush precipitately into the field, and to en- 
counter an enemy, has somewhat in it that is 
barbarous and brutal. When opportunity, how- 
ever, and necessity require it, we are then to 
fight and to prefer death to shame or slavery. 

XXIV. But with regard to overthrowing and 
plundering of cities, great consideration is re- 
quired, that nothing be done rashly, nothing 
cruelly. A great man, after he has maturely 
weighed all circumstances, will punish the guilty ; 
he will spare the many ; and in every fortune he 
never will depart from an upright, virtuous con- 
duct. For, as you find (as I have already ob- 
served) men who prefer military to civil duties, 
so will you find many of that cast who look upon 
dangerous and presumptuous resolutions to be 
more splendid and more dignified than calm and 



56 CICERo's OFFICES. 

digested measures. The avoiding danger ought 
never to bring us under the imputation of being 
irresolute and cowardly ; but, at the same time, 
nothing can be more stupid than wantonly to 
expose ourselves to danger. 

In encountering dangers, therefore, we are to 
imitate the practice of the physicians who apply 
to gentle illnesses, gentle medicines, but are 
forced to apply more desperate, and more doubt- 
ful cures to more dangerous diseases. None 
but a madman will wish for a storm while he 
enjoys a calm, but every wise man will weather 
the tempest when it rises, by all the means he 
can employ ; and the rather, if, after a matter is 
cleared up, the good is to overbalance the evil, 
while it is doubtful. Now the danger attending 
high undertakings falls sometimes upon the 
undertakers, and sometimes upon the state; 
and hence, some are in danger of losing their 
lives, some their reputation, and some their po- 
pularity. But we ought to be mofe forward to 
expose our own persons than the general in- 
terests to danger, and to be more ready to fight 
for honour and reputation than for any merce- 
nary considerations. 

Though many have been known cheerfully to 
venture not only their money but their lives for 
the public ; yet those very men have refused to 
risk the smallest spark of glory even at the 
request of their country. For instance, Callu 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 57 

cratidas, who after distinguishing himself by 
many gallant actions at the head of the Lacede- 
monian armies, during the Peloponesian war, at 
last threw every thing into confusion by refusing 
to obey the directions of those who were for re- 
moving the fleet from Arginussi, without fighting 
the Athenians. His answer was, that if the 
Lacedemonians lost that fleet, they could fit out 
another ; but that, should he turn his back, his 
disgrace would be irretrievable. 'Tis true, the 
blow that followed upon this was not very severe 
to the Lacedemonians ; but it was a deadly one, 
when, from a principle of jealousy, Cleombrotus 
fought with Epamonidas, and his army was 
routed. How preferable to this conduct was the 
conduct of Quintus Maximus. 

The man* who saved his country by delay, 
No tales could move him, and no envy sway. 
And thus, the laurels on his honour' d brow, 
In age shall flourish, and with time shall grow. 

This is a species of misconduct that ought to be 
avoided in civil matters; for we know some 
men who are extremely right in their notions of 
things, but they are so afraid of being maligned 
that they dare not express them. 

XXV. All who hope to rise in a state ought 
strictly to observe two rules of Plato. The first 

* The man.'} The verses quoted here by Ennius seem to 
have been in high reputation with the Romans, for Virgil has 
borrowed the first of them, and applied it, as our author does, 
to the conduct of Fabius Maximus against Hannibal. 






58 cicero's offices. 

is, that unmindful of their private concerns, 
they direct all their actions to the good of their 
country. The second is, that their cares be ap- 
plied to the whole of the state, lest while they 
are cherishing one part, they abandon the others. 
- ^ For the administration of government, like a 

guardianship, ought to be directed to the good 
of those who confer, and not of those who 
receive the trust. Now, they who encourage 
one part of a community and neglect another, 
introduce into the state the greatest of all evils, 
sedition, and discord. From this partiality, some 
court the people, some the great men, but few 
the whole. This, amongst the Athenians, gave 
rise to great disquiets, and in our government, 
not only to seditions, but to the most destructive 
wars, which every worthy and brave citizen 
who deserves to rise in the state will avoid and 
detest : he will give himself entirely up to the 
service of his country, without regard to riches 
or to power, and he will govern the whole so as 
to consult the good of all. He will even be far 
from bringing any man into hatred or disgrace 
by ill-grounded charges, and he will so closely 
attach himself to the rules of justice and virtue, 
that however he may incur the heavy displeasure 
of others, he will preserve them even with his 
life, nay forego life itself rather than swerve 
from the principles I have laid down. 

Of all evils, ambition, and the disputes for 



CICERo's OFFICES. 59 

% 

public posts, are the most deplorable. Plato, 
likewise, on this subject, says very sensibly : 
" that they who dispute for the management of a 
state, resemble mariners wrangling about who 
should direct the helm." He then lays down as 
a rule, that we ought to look upon those as our 
enemies who take arms against the public, and 
not those who want to have public affairs di- 
rected by their judgment. For instance, Publius 
Africanus and Quintus Metellus differed in opi- 
nion, but their difference was void of rancour. 

We are likewise to disregard all suggestions, 
as if a man of courage ought to push his resent- 
ments to extremes. For nothing is more noble, 
nothing more worthy of a great and a good 
man, than placability and moderation. Nay, 
amongst a free people, whose laws have no 
respect (.of persons, a smoothness, and what we 
may call a depth of temper is necessary, to pre- 
vent our falling into an idle, disagreeable,peevish- 
ness, every time we are ruffled by impertinent 
addresses or unreasonable petitions. Yet this 
politeness and moderation ought to be so tem- 
pered, that we remain inflexible in the interest of 
our country ; otherwise there could be no carry- 
ing on public business. Meanwhile, all repri- 
mands and punishments ought to be inflicted 
without abuse ; without regard to the party so 
punishing or reprimanding, but to the good of 
the state. 




60 CICERo's OFFICES* 

We ought likewise to take care that the pu- 
nishment be proportioned to the offence, and 
that some be not punished for doing things that 
are not so much as noticed in others. Above 
all things, in punishing we ought to guard 
against passion. For the man, who is to pro- 
nounce a sentence of punishment in a passion, 
never can preserve that mean between what is 
too much and too little which is so justly re- 
commended by the Peripatetics ; did they not 
too much commend the passion of anger, by as- 
serting it to be a useful property of our nature. 
For my part, I think that it ought to be checked 
in all occurrences of life ; and it were to be 
wished that they who preside in government 
were like the laws, which in punishing are not 
directed by resentments but by equity. 

XXVI. Now, during our prosperity, and 
while we sail with the tide of fortune, we ought 
the more industriously to avoid pride and arro- 
gance. For it discovers weakness to lose our 
temper in prosperity, equally as it does in ad- 
versity. It reflects great honour upon a man, if, 
as we learn of Socrates and Caius Lselius, through 
all scenes of life, he preserves the same temper 
of mind, the same look, and the same appear- 
ance. Though Philip of Macedon was inferior 
to his son in his achievements and his re- 
nown, yet was he superior to him in the accom- 
plishments of politeness and humanity. The 



CICERO's OFFICES. 61 

one, therefore, always appeared great, while the 
other often became detestable. So much are 
they in the right who lay it down as a rule, that 
the more advanced we are in our fortune the 
more affable ought we to be in our behaviour. 
Pansetius tells us, his hearer and friend, Africanus, ^V ^ 

used to say, that as horses, grown unruly by 
being in frequent engagements, are delivered 
over to be tamed by riding masters, thus men 
who grow riotous and self-sufficient by prosperity 
ought, as it were, to be exercised in the traverse 
of reflection and reason, that they may be there- 
by made sensible of the inconstancy of the world 
and the uncertainty of fortune. 

Here you are to observe, that in the time of 
our greatest prosperity we should have the 
greatest recourse to the advice of our friends, 
who ought at that time to have greater weight 
with us than at any other. At such a juncture, 
we are to take care not to lend our ears to flat- 
terers, and to avoid being imposed upon by adu- 
lation, which easily may mislead us. For we 
then think ourselves entitled to praise, an opinion 
that gives rise to a thousand errors in conduct ; 
because, when men are once blown up with idle 
conceits, they are grossly befooled and led into 
the greatest mistakes. So much for this subject. 

One thing you are to understand, that they 
who govern a state, perform the highest exploits 
■and discover the most elevated sentiments, be- 



62 CICERO's OFFICES. 

cause their business is of such extensive influ- 
ence and general concern. Yet there are and 
have been, many men of great capacities, who 
in private life have planned out, or attempted, 
mighty matters without exceeding their own 
sphere of action ; or, being thrown into a mid- 
dle state, between philosophers and magistrates, 
have amused themselves with the management 
of their private fortune, without swelling it by 
all manner of means, not debarring their friends 
from the benefit of it ; but rather, when occa- 
sion calls upon them, sharing it both with their 
friends and their country. But let it be ori- 
ginally acquired with honesty, without any 
scandalous or oppressive practices. Let it be- 
come serviceable to numbers of worthy men. 
Let it then be improved by prudence, by in- 
dustry, and frugality ; without serving the pur- 
poses of pleasure and luxury, rather than of 
generosity and humanity. The man who ob- 
serves those rules may live with magnificence, 
with dignity, and with spirit, yet with simplicity 
and honour, and be all the while the friend of 
man. 

XXVII. We are now to treat of that remain- 
ing part of virtue in which consist chastity, and 
those (as we may term them) ornaments of life, 
temperance, moderation, and a mind undisturbed 
by passion and regularly free. Under this head 
is comprehended what in Latin we may call 



CICERO^ OFFICES. 63 

decorum (or graceful), for the Greeks term it 
the 9rpE9ro>. Now its quality is such, that it is 
indiscernible from the honestum ; for whatever 
is graceful is virtuous, and whatever is virtuous 
is graceful. 

But it is more easy to conceive than to ex- 
press the difference between what is virtuous 
and what is graceful (or between the honestum 
and the decorum) ; for gracefulness, before it 
can appear as such, must have virtue for the 
foundation. What is graceful, therefore, ap- 
pears not only in that division of virtue which is 
here treated of, but in the other three. For it 
is graceful in a man to think and to speak with 
propriety, to act with deliberation, and in every 
occurrence of life to find out and persevere in 
the truth. On the other hand, to be imposed 
upon, to mistake, to faulter, and to be deceived, 
is as disgraceful as is dotage or madness. Thus, 
whatever is just is graceful ; whatever is unjust 
is as disgraceful as it is criminal. We may say 
the same of courage. For every manly, generous 
action, dignifies and graces a man ; the reverse 
both degrades and disgraces him. 

This, therefore, what I call gracefulness, is an 
universal property of virtue, and a property that 
is self-evident without requiring any of the deep 
powers of understanding to discern it. For 
there is a certain gracefulness that is implied in 
every virtue, and which may exist distinctly 






64 CICERO's OFFICES. 

from virtue, rather in imagination than reality. 
A fine air and beauty of person, for example, 
cannot be separated from health ; thus, the 
whole of that gracefulness which I here speak 
of, is blended with virtue, but may exist 
separately in the mind and idea. 

Now it falls under two heads. For there is a 
general gracefulness that is the property of all 
virtue ; and that includes another which is 
fitted to the particular divisions of virtue. The 
former is commonly defined to be that grace- 
fulness, that is adapted to the dignity of man's 
nature, in so far as it differs from that of the 
brutes. The included head is defined to be a 
gracefulness so adapted to nature, as to discover 
propriety and sweetness under a certain elegant 
appearance. 

XXVIII. We may perceive those definitions 
to be true from that gracefulness which is 
followed by the poets, and which they treat so 
largely of, under another head. For we define 
gracefulness in poetry to be, when a person 
speaks and acts in that manner which is most 
becoming his character. Now should a poet 
introduce iEacus or Minos, saying: — 

Let them hate me, so they fear me -, or, 
The father's belly is his children's grave, 

he would disgrace his characters ; because we 
know them to have been just persons. But when 
those sentiments are put into the mouth of an 



CICERO S OFFfCES. 



65 



Atreus, they are received with applause ; because 
the speech is in character. Now poets form 
their judgment of this gracefulness from per- 
sonated characters ; but our character is the 
stamp of nature, dignified and raised far above 
the rest of the animal creation. 

Poets, therefore, in their vast variety of 
characters, consider what is proper and what is 
becoming, even in the worst. But as nature 
herself has cast to us our parts in constancy, 
moderation, temperance, and modesty ; as she 
at the same time instructs us how to behave to 
mankind, the effect is, that the extent both of 
that gracefulness, which is the general property fjjsU 
of all virtue, and of that particular gracefulness 
that is adapted to every species of it, is dis- 
covered. For as personal beauty, by the proper 
disposition of the limbs, attracts our attention 
and pleases the eye by the harmony and 
elegance with which each part corresponds to 
another ; so that gracefulness which enlightens 
life, attracts the approbation of society, by 
order, consistency, and modesty, in all we say 
and in all we do. 

There is 7 therefore, a degree of respect due $jf* 
from us, suited to every man's character, from 
the best to the worst. For it is not only 
arrogant, but it is profligate, for a man to dis- 
regard the world's opinion of himself. But in 
our estimate of human life, we are to make a 



66 CICERO's OFFICES. 

difference between justice and morality.* The 
character of justice, is to do no wrong, that of 
morality, is to give no offence to mankind ; and 

* Justice and morality.] Orig. Justiciam # verecundiam. 
This is a very fine passage, and deserves to be explained. 
Verecundia is commonly translated bashfulness or modesty j 
but in the sense of our author here, neither of those two 
words will do j nor am I sure that the word decency, or any 
word in the English tongue, comes fully up to his meaning, 
which is, an inborn reverence for what is right, and which 
supplies the place of, and sometimes controls the law. 
Many actions may be agreeable to law, and yet disagreeable 
to this inborn principle. The tragedian Seneca has dis- 
tinguished them very finely. He brings in Pyrrhus, saying, 

Pyr. Lex nulla capto parcit aut Pcenam impedit. 
To this Agamemnon replies. 

Ag. Quodnon vetat Lex, hoc vetat fieri Pudor. 
Pyr. cc No law exempts a captive from the sword." 
Ag. <c Where the law does not, moral duties bind." 

Our author inculcates the same principle in many other parts 
of his works ; and it was afterwards admitted by Justinian into 
his Institutes. Fide commissa appellata sunt, quia nullo vinculo 
Juris, sed tantum Pudore eorum qui rogabantur, continebantur . 
<e Deeds of trust were so called, because the party entrusted 
was not obligated by law, but by conscience or morality." 
Ovid has a very noble sentiment, which he seems to have 
taken from our author and from Plato. 

Nondum Justiciam Facinus mortale fugarat, 

Ultima de superis ilia reliquit Humum ; 

Proque metu, Populum, sine vi, Pudor ipse regebat. 

" Nor justice yet had fled from human crimes, 
" Of all their godheads she the last remain'd j 
" For awful conscience, in those happy times, 
'* Rul'd without fear, and without force restrain'd." 



CICERO^ OFFICES. 67 

in this the force of the graceful is most percept- 
ible. The explanation of those points will, 
I believe, lead you to a full apprehension of what 
we call the graceful or becoming. 

Now the duty resulting from it, leads directly 
to the fitness and preservation of nature ; and if 
we follow its tract as a guide, we never shall err, 
but follow what is most penetrating and sagacious 
in nature ; whatever is best adapted to human 
society, and whatever is spirited or manly. But 
the chief force of the graceful lies in the 
division I now treat of. For we are to examine 
that bodily deportment which is most pleasing 
to nature, but much more the operations of the 
mind, the which are likewise best accommodated 
to her qualities. For the powers of the mind 
and of nature are two-fold ; one consists in 
appetite, by the Greeks called oppj, which 
hurries man hither and thither; the other in 

Verecundia or Pudor, therefore, is properly an inward 
abhorrence of moral turpitude, through which the conscience 
is awed, and may be said to blush. Plato, and from him 
Plutarch, makes justice and this Verecundia to be inseparable 
companions. " God (says the former) being afraid lest the 
t( human race should entirely perish upon earth, gave to man- 
' ' kind justice and morality, those ornaments of states, and 
" the bonds of Society." Doctor Cockman, who 1 think 
understood our author very well, has translated Verecundia in 
this passage by three words, viz. modesty, respect or 
reverence j but I don't think all the three come up to its 
sense. I am not even satisfied with my own term, morality, 
but I could not get one more proper in the English tongue. 

f'2 









68 CICERo's OFFICES. 

reason, which teaches and explains what we are 
to do, and what we are to avoid. The result is, 
that reason should direct and appetite obey. 
XXIX. Hence every human action ought to 
Y& be void of rashness and sloven ness ; nay, we 
a^h^ ought to do nothing for what we cannot give a 

justifiable account. For this amounts to almost 
a definition of duty. Now we must manage so 
as to keep the appetites subservient to reason, 
..that they never hurry away before her, nor 
abandon her through sloth and cowardice. 
Let them be ever composed and free from all 
perturbation of spirit; and thus resolution and 
moderation will be displayed in their full extent. 
For those appetites that rove too far, and being 
as it were in a flurry, either through desire or 
aversion, are not sufficiently under the command 
of reason; such, I say, undoubtedly transgress 
both their end and their design. For they 
abandon and disclaim that subordination to 
reason, to which by the law of nature they are 
subjected, and thereby, not only the mind, but 
the body is disordered. Let us observe the 
looks of men who are in a rage, of those who are 
confused through desire, who despond through 
fear, or are in a twitter through too much joy; 
and what a strange alteration do we find in their 
faces, their voices, their motions, and attitudes ! 

That I may return to my description of duty ; 
from these particulars we learn that all our 



CICERo's OFFICES. 69 

appetites ought to be contracted and cool ; that 
all our attention and cares ought to be awake, 
lest we commit some rash, random, thoughtless, 
inconsiderate action. For nature has not formed 
us to sport and merriment, but rather to serious- k^ja Ul 
ness and studies that are important and sublime. [ 
Sport and merriment are notalways disallowable ; 
but we are to use them as we do sleep and other 
kinds of repose, when we have despatched our 
affairs of greater weight and importance. Nay, 
our very manner of joking should be neither 
wanton nor indecent, but genteel and good 
humoured. For as we indulge boys only in 
those diversions that are consistent with genteel 
behaviour, so in our very jokes somewhat of a 
generous disposition ought to appear. 

The manner of joking is reduceable under j 
two denominations ; one that is illiberal, pro- 
voking, profligate, and obscene; another that 
is elegant, polite, witty, and good humoured. 
We have abundance of this last, not only in our 
Flautus, and the authors of the old Greek 
comedy,* but in the writings of the Socratic 
philosophers. Many collections have likewise 
been made by various writers, of humourous 

* Authors of the old Greek comedy.'] Our author's judg- 
ment is very questionable in this passage. The old comedy of 
the Athenians was condemned even by Aristotle, for its lewd- 
ness and immorality 5 and Horace thought that the wit of 
Plautus was sometimes, at least, illiberal. 



70 CICERo's OFFICES. 

sayings, such as that made by Cato, and called 
his Apophthegms. The distinction, therefore, 
between a genteel and an ill-mannered joke is 
a very ready one. The former, when time and 
inclination serves, is worthy a gentleman ; the 
other, if obscene expression is joined to an 
immoral subject, is unworthy even of a man. 
There is likewise a certain method to be ob- 
served, even in our amusements, that they be 
not too dissipated, and that after being elevated 
by pleasure, we do not sink into some immorality. 
Our Campus Martius, and the sports of the field 
in hunting, furnish us with virtuous means of 
amusement. 

XXX. But in all our disquisitions concerning 
the nature of a duty, it is material that we keep 
in our eye the great excellence of man's nature, 
above that of the brutes and all other creatures. 
They are insensible to every thing but pleasure, 
and they will risk every thing to attain it. 
Whereas, the mind of man is nourished by 
reading and reflection, and being charmed by 
the pleasure of seeing and hearing, it is ever 
either inquiring or acting. But if there is a 
man who has a small bias to pleasure, provided 
he is not of the brute kind (for some men differ 
from brutes only in name) ; but, I say, if he 
is ever so little elevated above instinct, though 
he may be smitten with pleasure, let him, 
through the principle of morality that is 



CICERo's OFFICES. 71 

within him, hide and disguise his inclination 

for it. % 9 

From this we are to conclude, that the mere 
pursuits of sensual gratifications are unworthy 
the excellency of man's nature ; and that they 
ought therefore to be despised and rejected ; 
but that if a man shall have a small propensity 
for pleasure, he ought to be extremely cautious 
in what manner he indulges it. We, therefore, 
in the nourishment and dress of our bodies, 
ought to consult not our pleasure, but our health 
and our strength ; and should we examine the 
excellency and dignity of our nature, we should 
then be made sensible how shameful man's life 
is, when it melts away in pleasure, in volup- 
tuousness, and effeminacy ; and how noble it is 
to live with abstinence, with modesty, with j^. fJ 
strictness, and sobriety. 

We are likewise to observe, that nature has 
as it were, endowed us with two characters. 
The first is in common to all mankind ; because / 7 
all of us partake in the excellency of reason, 
which places us above the brutes; from which is 
derived all that is virtuous, all that is graceful, 
and by which we trace our connexions with our 'Mjt&& 
several duties. The other character is peculiar 
to particular men. For as there is a great variety 
in our persons, some for instance are swift 
in running, others strong in wrestling ; some 
have a dignity, and others a sweetness of 



72 



CICERO S OFFICES. 



aspect, so is there a still greater variety in our 
minds. 

Lucius Crassus* and Lucius Philippus had a 
great deal of wit ; but Caius Caesar, the son of 
Lucius, had more, and it was better polished. 
Their con temporaries, Marcus Scaurus and young 
Marcus Drusus, were remarkably serious ; while 
Caius LEelius was frank and open ; but the mind 
of his friend Scipio was more ambitious and his 
manners more reserved. As to the Greeks, we 
are told of Socrates, that he was agreeable and 
pleasing • his conversation was full of wit, and 
of that kind of archness (by the Greeks called 
iipva) that hits all kinds of characters in dis- 
course. On the other hand, Pythagoras and 
Pericles, without the least openness of temper, 
had great weight of authority. Amongst the 
Carthagenian generals, Hannibal, we learn, was 
crafty, as was Quintus Maximus amongst the 
Roman; their peculiar talents were conceal- 
ment, secrecy, dissimulation, and the rendering 
the designs of their enemies either abortive 
or advantageous to themselves. Amongst the 
Greeks, Themistocles, and Jason of Pherea, were 
eminent in this character ; and, above all, we are 
told how cunning and artful Solon was, when to 
secure his own life, and that he might be of greater 
service to his country, he counterfeited madness. 

* Lucius Crassus."] See our Author's Treatise de Oratore, 
for more finished characters of most of these great men. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 73 

In opposition to those characters, the tempers 
of many others are plain and open. Their 
principles are to love truth, to abhor deceit, to 
do nothing- by stealth, nothing by stratagem ; 
while others care not what they suffer themselves, 
or whom they stoop to, provided they accomplish 
their ends : Sylla and Marcus Crassus, for ex- 
amples. Lysander the Lacedemonian, we are 
told, had very great art and perseverance in this 
character, and of a contrary disposition was 
Callicrades, who succeeded to Lysander in the 
command of the fleet. We have known another 
man, who though very capable to lead a con- 
versation, chooses to follow it in a mixed com- 
pany ; such were the Catuli, father and son, and 
such I knew Quintus Mucius Mancia to be. I 
have heard from men older than myself, that 
Publius Scipio Nasica was of the same cast, but 
that his father, the same who destroyed Tiberius 
Gracchus in his pernicious designs, was void of 
all politeness in conversation : nay, we are even 
told that Xenocrates, the most austere of phi- 
losophers, was distinguished as a polite and a 
fine gentleman. Innumerable, but far from 
being blameable, are the other differences in 
the natures and manners of men. 

XXXI. Everyman, however, ought carefully 
to follow that character that nature has given 
him, provided it is only peculiar, without being 
hurtful, that he may the more easily fall in with 



74 CltfERo's OFFICES* 

that gracefulness I am recommending. For we 
ought to manage so as never to counteract the 
general system of nature ; but having taken care 
of that, we are to follow the sway of our own 
constitution ; in so much, that though other 
studies may be of greater weight and excellence, 
yet we are to regulate our pursuits by the dis- 
position of our nature. It is to no purpose to 
thwart her, or to aim at what you cannot attain. 
We therefore may have a still clearer conception 
of the graceful I am recommending, from this 
consideration, that nothing is graceful that goes 
(as the saying is), against the grain, that is, in 
contradiction and opposition to nature. 

To proceed : if any thing is graceful, nothing- 
is more so than an uniformity through the course 
of all your life, as well as through every par- 
ticular occurrence in it; and you never can 
preserve this uniformity, if aping another man's 
nature, you forsake your own. For as we ought 
to converse in the language we are best ac- 
quainted with, for fear of making ourselves 
justly ridiculous, as those do who interlard their 
discourse with Greek expressions ; so there 
ought to be no incongruity in our actions, and 
none in all the tenor of our lives. 

Now, so powerful is this difference of natures, 
that it may be the duty of one man to put him- 
self to death, and yet not of another, though 
both are embarked in the same cause. Can we 



«/■* 



CICERo's OFFICES. 75 

suppose the cause of Marcus Cato to have been 
different from that of those who surrendered 
themselves to Caesar in Afric. Yet it had been 
perhaps blameable in the latter, had they put 
themselves to death, because their lives were 
less severe, and their morals more pliable. 
But Cato, having by perpetual perseverance, 
strengthened that inflexibility which nature had 
given him, and having never departed from the 
purpose and resolution he had once formed, 
chose to die, rather than to see, in peace, the 
face of a tyrant. 

How various were those sufferings of Ulysses, 
in his incessant rambles, when he became the 
slave of women (if you consider Circe and Ca- 
lypso as such), yet in all he said he was com- 
plaisant and agreeable to every body ; nay, put 
up with abuses from slaves of both sexes that he 
might at length compass his favourite purpose. 
But by what we are told of the character of Ajax, 
he would have preferred a thousand deaths to 
such indignities. 

They who consider all this ought to live ac- 
cording to their own endowments, and they 
ought to manage them without making any ex- 
periments how another man's become them ; for 
that manner which is most peculiarly a man's 
own, always sits most gracefully upon him. 

Every man ought, therefore, to study his own 
genius, so as to become an impartial judge of 



76 CICERo's OFFICES. 

his own good and bad qualities ; otherwise the 
players will discover better sense than we ; for, 
in casting their parts, they don't choose those 
that are the most excellent,* but those to which 
they are the best fitted. The best voices choose 
the part of Epigonas or Medus ; the best actors 
that of Menalippa or Clyteranestra. Rupilius, 
whom I remember always stuck to that of An- 
tiopa ; and Esopus seldom chose that of Ajax. 
Shall a player then act with greater propriety 
upon a theatre, than a wise man does in life ? 
Let us, therefore, most earnestly apply to those 
parts for which we are best fitted. But should 
necessity degrade us into characters unsuitable 
to our genius, if we cannot grace our parts, let 
us employ all our care, attention, and industry, 
in endeavouring to disgrace them as little as pos- 
sible. For we are to endeavour to avoid absur- 
dities rather than to attempt excellencies which 
nature has not given us. 

XXXII. To the two characters above de- 
scribed is added a third, which is either acci- 
dental or occasional ; and even a fourth : I mean 
that in which our own judgment is to direct our 

* Most excellent.! From this passage of our author we may 
conclude, that there was no such thing amongst the Roman 
players as a favourite character, which a performer should 
think himself disgraced did he not appear in it ) but that they 
thought that great abilities in the performance could make any 
character a favourite one j and that nature, joined with study, 
must direct the parts they were to act. 






CICERO's OFFICES. 77 ,, ; -#^ 

choice. Now kingdoms, governments, honours, 
dignities, riches, interest, and whatever are the 
qualities contrary to them, happen through ac- 
cident, and are directed by emergencies. But 
the choice of the characters, in which we are to 
act our parts in life, lies in our own breasts. 
Some, therefore, apply to philosophy, some to 
the civil law, and some to eloquence. Some 
endeavour even to shine in one virtue, and some 
in another. 

Men generally are ambitious of distinguishing 
themselves by those characters in which their 
fathers or their ancestors were most famous : 
for instance, Quintus,thesonof Publius Mucius, 
in the civil law ; Africanus, the son of Paulus, in 
the art of war. Some, however, increase by 
merits of their own, those that they have received 
from their fathers ; for the same Africanus 
crowned his military glory with the practice of 
eloquence. In like manner, Timotheus, the son 
of Conon, who equalled his father in the duties 
of the field, but added to them the accomplish- 
ments of wit and learning. Sometimes, how- 
ever, it happens, that men, without imitating 
their ancestors, follow a purpose of their own ; 
and this is most commonly the case with such 
men whose descent is very mean, but their views 
very high. 

In our search after what is graceful, all those 
particulars ought to be duly studied and weighed. 



7S CICERO'S OFFICES. 

In the first place, we are to determine who and 
what manner of men we are to be, arid in what 
rank we are to live ; a consideration, which is 
of all others the most difficult to determine. 
For, in our early youth, we are most incapable 
of reasoning, every one chooses to himself that 
station of life which he has been most used to 
fancy. He therefore is trepanned into some 
fixed and settled course of living, before he is 
capable to judge what is the most proper. 

For the Hercules of Prodicus, as we learn 
from Xenophon, in his early puberty (an age 
which nature points out as the most proper for 
every man's choosing his scheme of life) is said to 
have gone into a desert, and there sitting down, 
entered into many deep considerations within his 
own breast, upon the choice of two paths that pre- 
sented themselves to his eyes, oneleadingto plea- 
sure, the other to virtue. This might indeed hap- 
pen to a Jove-begotten Hercules ; but it is far from 
being our case, who imitate those whom we have 
an opinion of, and are thereby drawn into their 
pursuits and purposes. For generally we are so 
prepossessed by the principles of our parents, 
that we are moulded according to their form 
and habit. Others, swayed by the general 
choice, are passionately fond of any thing that 
is preferred by the majority. A few, however, 
either through a certain happiness, or a certain 
excellency of nature, or through the forming 



CICERo's OFFICES. 79 

care of their parents, pursue the path of life that 
is best calculated for their genius. 

XXXIII. Now it happens very seldom that 
men born with an exalted genius, or improved 
by the advantages of education and learning, or 
possessing both, have scope enough for deli- 
berating upon a proper scheme of life, and in 
such a deliberation the whole result of it ought to 
be determined by a man's consulting his own 
genius. For since, as I said before, we require 
that graceful in every thing to which our 
natural genius leads us, before we fix the plan 
of our future life, we ought to be still much more 
careful in that respect, that we may be consistent 
with ourselves, and not deficient in any one 

duty. -)ot^j& 

But because nature is the most powerful agent )>hJ \hj^ - 
in our attaining this character, and fortune the 
next, we ought to pay regard to both in fixing 
our scheme of life ; but chiefly to nature, as being 
endowed with much more permanency and per- 
severance ; insomuch, that the struggle, some- 
times between nature and fortune seems to be 
between, a mortal and an immortal being. The 
man, therefore, who adapts his whole system of 
living to his undepraved nature, let that man 
stick to his resolution. For that, above all 
things, becomes a man, provided he is not sen- 
sible that he has mistaken his scheme of living. 
Should that, as it possibly may, be the case, all 



80 CICERO's OFFICES. 

his manners and purposes must undergo a total 
alteration, which, if other circumstances shall 
concur, will be the more easily and readily 
effected. But should it happen otherwise, it is 
to be done leisurely and gradually. Thus, men 
of sense think it more decent, that disagreeable 
or prejudicial friendships should be gradually 
untacked, rather than suddenly cut up. 

Now, after we have altered our scheme of life, 
we ought to be at all imaginable pains to make it 
appear, that we have done it upon good grounds. 
But, as I said above, if we are to imitate our an- 
cestors, we ought, above all things, to avoid imi- 
tating their bad qualities. In the next place, if 
by nature we are unable to imitate them, in some 
things we are not to attempt it. For instance, the 
son of the elder Africanus, who was the son of 
Paulus, adopted this maxim, as he could not, for 
want of health, resemble his father so much as his 
father did his grandfather. If, therefore, a man 
is unable to excel in pleading, to entertain the 
people by haranguing, or to make a figure in 
war; yet still he ought to do what is in his 
power ; he ought to practice justice, honour, ge- 
nerosity, modesty, and temperance, the better to 
cover his other deficiencies. Now the best in- 
heritance a parent can leave a child, and it 
is an inheritance beyond all the gifts of fortune, 
is the example of a virtuous and a noble con- 
duct ; and he who disgraces that paternal glory, 



CICERo's OFFICES. 81 

ought to be deemed an outcast, and a monster of 
nature. 

XXXIV. As every duty is not suited to every 
age, some belonging to the young, others to the 
old, we must likewise say somewhat on this 
head. It is the duty of a young man to reverence 
his elders, and amongst them to select the best 
and the worthiest, in order to be directed by their 
advice and authority. For the inexperience of 
youth ought to be instructed and conducted by 
the wisdom of the aged. Above all things, the 
young man ought to be restrained from lawless 
desires, and patient under the practice of all the 
laborious duties both of body and mind, that by 
persevering in them, he may make a figure both 
in war and peace. Nay, when they even unbend 
their minds and give a loose to jollity, they 
ought to avoid intemperance, and never lose 
sight of morality ; and this they can more easily 
effect, if upon such occasions they admit the 
company of their elders. 

As to old men, in proportion as they abate in 
bodily exercises, the exercises of their mind 
ought to increase. Their aim should be to 
assist all they can their friends, the youth, and 
above all their country, by their advice and ex- 
perience. Now there is nothing that old age 
ought more carefully to guard against, than 
giving itself up to listlessness and indolence. As 
to luxury, though it is shameful in every age, in 



82 cicero's offices. 

old age it is detestable ; but if to that is added 
intemperance in lawless desires, the evil is 
doubled ; because old age thereby becomes a 
disgrace ; and youth to intemperance adds im- 
prudence. 

Neither is it foreign to my purpose to touch 
upon the duties of magistrates, of private citizens, 
and of strangers. The peculiar character of a 
worthy magistrate consists in the consciousness, 
that as he represents the state, he ought, there- 
fore, to keep up to its dignity, to preserve its 
constitution, to act by its laws, and always to 
have a sense that he has his power in trust for 
the public good. As to a private man and 
citizen, his duty is to live upon an easy and an 
equal footing with his fellow-citizens, without 
meanness but without arrogance. In his senti* 
mente of the public to be always for peaceful and 
virtuous measures ; for such are the sentiments 
and such the expressions we ascribe to the 
worthy citizen. 

Now the duty of a stranger and an alien is, to 
mind nothing but his own business, to attack no 
man's property ; and by no means to be curious 
about the affairs of a government in which he 
has no concern. Thus we will generally suc- 
ceed in the practice of the moral duties, when we 
inquire after what is most becoming and best 
fitted to persons, occasions, and ages ; and no- 
thing is more becoming than in all our actions 



CICERo's OFFICES. 83 ^ MsJ 

and in all our deliberations to proceed with self- 
consistency. 

XXXV. But, because the graceful or be- 
coming character we treat of appears in all our 
words and actions, nay, in every motion and dis- 
position of our person, and consists of three 
particulars, beauty, regularity, and an address 
suited to our business (matters indeed that are 
difficult to be expressed, but it is sufficient if 
they are understood) ; and these three heads 
comprehend the regard we ought to pay to the 
good opinion of those amongst whom and with 
whom we live ; and they are matters that I must 
likewise touch upon. In the first place, mature 
seems to have paid a great regard to the form of 
our bodies, by exposing to the sight all that part 
that is most beautifully composed, while she has 
hid and concealed those parts which were given 
for the necessities of nature, and which would 
have been offensive and disagreeable to the sight, {^j 

This curious contrivance of nature has been 
seconded by the modesty of mankind ; for all 
men in their senses conceal the parts which na- 
ture has hid ; and they take care that they should 
discharge as privately as possible even the calls 
of nature. -And those parts which serve those 
necessities, and the necessities themselves, are 
not called by their real names ; because that 
which in the private commission is not shameful, 
becomes obscene in the flat expression. The 
g2 



84 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

public commission therefore of those things, as 
well as the obscene expression of them, is highly 
impudent. 

Neither are we to regard the Cynics or the 
Stoics, who are next to Cynics, who abuse and 
ridicule us for deeming things that are not shame- 
ful in their own nature, to become sinful through 
words and expressions. Now, we give every- 
thing that is disgraceful in its own nature its 
proper term. Theft, fraud, adultery, are dis- 
graceful in their own nature, but not obscene in 
the expression. The act of begetting children 
is virtuous, but the expression obscene. Thus, 
the Cynics maintain a great many arguments to 
the same purpose against delicacy in those mat- 
ters. Let us, for our parts, follow nature, and 
avoid whatever is offensive to the eyes or ears ; 
let us aim at the graceful or becoming, whether 
we stand or walk, whether we sit or lie down, 
in every motion of our features, our eyes, or our 
hands. 

In those matters two things are chiefly to be 
avoided ; effeminacy and daintiness on the one 
hand, and coarseness and clownishness on the 
other. Neither are we to admit, that those con- 
siderations are proper for actors and orators, but 
that they ought to be indifferent to us. The 
manners at least of the actors, from the morality 
of our ancestors, are so decent that none of them 
appear upon the stage without drawers ; being 



CICERo's OFFICES. 85 

afraid lest if by any accident certain parts of the 
body should be exposed, they should make an in- 
decent appearance. According- to our customs, 
sons grown up to manhood do not bathe along 
with their fathers, nor sons-in-law with their 
fathers-in-law. Modesty of this kind, therefore, 
is to be cherished, especially when nature her- 
self is our instructor and guide. 

XXXVI. Now beauty is of two kinds, one 
that has loveliness, and one that has dignity for 
its character. The former we esteem the pro- 
perty of women, the latter of men : therefore, 
let a man remove from his person every orna- 
ment that is unbecoming a man, and let him take 
the same care of every absurdity that may infect 
his gesture or motion. For very often the 
movements people learn of masters are finical, 
and thereby become extremely disagreeable; 
and we are disgusted with certain impertinent 
gestures among the players, while we are pleased 
in both kinds with whatever is unaffected and 
simple. Now dignity in the person is preserved 
by the freshness of the complexion, and that 
freshness by the exercises of the body. To this, 
we are to add, a neatness that is neither trouble- ^ 
some nor too much studied, but void of all 
clownish ill-bred slovenness. The same rules 
are to be observed with regard to ornaments of 
dress, in which, as in all other matters, a mean 
is preferable. 



i 86 cicfeRo's OFFICES. 

We must likewise avoid a drawling solemn 
pace in walking, as if we were carrying pageants 
s> at a triumph ; and likewise in matters that re- 
quire despatch, quick hurrying motions ; which 
occasion a shortness of breathing, an alteration 
in the looks, and a convulsion in the features, all 
which strongly indicate a want of uniformity. 
But we are still to take greater care that the 
movements of our mind never depart from 
nature ; in which we shall succeed if we guard 
against all flurry and disorder of spirit, and apply 
ourselves earnestly to arrive at what is graceful. 
Now the motions of the mind are of two kinds, 
some arise from thought and some from appetite ; 
thought chiefly applies itself in the search of 
truth. Appetite prompts us to action. We are 
therefore to take care to employ our thoughts 
upon the best subjects, and to subdue our appetite 
to reason. 

XXXVII. But great is the force of expression, 
which is of two kinds. One proper for disputing, 
the other for discoursing. Let the former be 
employed in pleadings at trials, in assemblies of 
the people, and meetings of the senate ; the 
latter in visits, in disquisitions at the meetings of 
our friends ; let it likewise attend upon entertain- 
ments. Rhetoricians lay down rules for disputing, 
but none for discoursing, though I am not sure 
but that likewise may be done. Masters are 
found for every other branch of learning, but 



CICERo's OFFICES. 87 

none study this; while no place is free from 
crowds of rhetoricians; and yet the rules that 
are laid down for words and sentiments are like- 
wise applicable to discourse. 

But^ as the voice utters the speech, we are to ^Ju*fy^^ 
observe two properties in it : first, clearness, and 
then sweetness ; both which are the free gifts of 
nature ; and yet practice may improve the one, 
and imitating those who speak nervously and 
distinctly, the other. There was, in the Catuli, 
nothing by which you could conclude them 
possessed of any deep acquirements in learning, 
though learned to be sure they were ; and so have 
others been. But the Catuli were thought to 
excel in the Latin tongue ; their pronunciation 
was harmonious, their words were neither mouth- 
ed nor minced ; so that their expression was dis- 
tinct, without being broad ; while their voice, 
without strain, was neither faint nor shrill . The 
manner of Lucius Crassus was more flowing, 
and equally elegant; though the Catuli, as 
speakers, were in as great esteem. But Caesar, 
brother to the old Catulus, exceeded all in wit 
and humour ; for without quitting his ordinary 
manner of speaking, he got the better of his an- 
tagonists at court, with all their studied eloquence 
of the bar. Therefore, in all those matters, our 
great aim ought to be, in every thing, to find out 
what is most graceful. 

Let our common discourse therefore (and this 






88 CICERO's OFFICES. 

is the great excellence of the followers of 
Socrates) be smooth and good-humoured, with- 
out the least tincture of arrogance. But let us 
not, as if we had a right to engross all talking, 
exclude others. In this, as in other things, let 
us allow to every man his fair turn, in a share of 
the conversation . But more especially we ought 
to consider the nature of the subjects we speak 
upon. If serious, let us treat them with gravity ; 
if merry, with good humour. But a man ought 
to take the greatest care that his discourse betray 
no defect in his morals ; and this generally is the 
case when we are set in to speak of the absent 
in a malicious, ridiculous, harsh, bitter, and con- 
temptuous manner. 

Now conversation generally turns upon private 
concerns, or politics, or the branches of literary 
knowledge. We are, therefore, to study when- 
ever our conversation rambles from its subject, 
to call it back, let the subject be what it will. 
For all mankind is not pleased with the same 
subjects, nor at the same time, nor in the same 
manner. We are likewise to observe the period 
when a conversation begins to grow disagreeable ; 
that as it began for improvement, so it may end 
with discretion. 

XXXVIII. But as we are very properly en- 
joined, in all the course of our life, to avoid all 
fits of passion, that is excessive emotions of the 
mind uncontrolled by reason ; in like manner, 



CICERO's OFFICES. 89 

our conversation ought to be free from all such 
emotions ; it ought to be neither over-angry nor 
over-earnest, but without slovenness or indo- 
lence, or the like ; and, above all things, we are 
to endeavour to express both esteem and love 
for those we converse with. Reproaches may 
sometimes be necessary, in which we may per- 
haps be obliged to employ a higher strain of 
voice and a harsher turn of language. Even in 
that case, we ought not to seem in a passion ; 
but as, in the cases of caustics and amputations, 
let us seldom and unwillingly apply this kind of 
correction; and, indeed, never but when the 
case is desperate and will submit to no other 
method of cure ; but still, away with all passion ; 
for with that nothing can be done with rectitude, 
nothing with discretion. 

In general all correction should be gentle but 
effectual, and so applied, as that the party may 
feel the smart, without resenting the affront. 
Nay, even the bitterness of a reproach should be 
so conveyed, as to intimate that it is thrown out 
in kindness to the offender. Now, it is advise- 
able, even in our most rancorous disputes, if we 
hear any that is affrontive of our own persons, 
to keep our temper and not fall into passion ; 
for whatever we do under its influence can never 
be either effectual, or approved of by those who 
are present. It is likewise disagreeable to hear 
a man declaiming in praise (and the more so if 



90 CICERo's OFFICES. 

he lies in the bargain), of himself, and to see 
him, like the swaggering soldier in the play be- 
come the ridicule of all about him. 

XXXIX. Now, as I touch, at least intend to 
touch, upon every matter of duty, J shall likewise 
treat of the manner in which I could wish to see 
the building of a great and a leading man con- 
ducted ; the end of it being utility, to which the 
design of the building must be adapted, but with 
a due regard to magnificence and elegance. It 
is to this day mentioned to the honour of 
Cneius Octavius, the first of that family who 
was raised to the consulship, that he built upon 
the Palatium, a house of a noble and majestic 
appearance ; and it had such an effect in his 
favour with the people, that it is thought it was 
on that account they voted him, though but a 
new man, into the consulship. Scaurus demo- 
lished this house and took the ground into his 
own palace. But though the one was the first 
of his family who was thereby raised to the con- 
sulate, yet the other, though his father was a man 
of the greatest rank and distinction, carried inta 
this, his enlarged palace, not only repulse, but 
disgrace, nay ruin.* 

For a palace ought to adorn an office, but the 
whole merit of a candidate ought not to depend 
upon the palace. For the house ought to receive 

f Ruin] Being forced into banishment for some undue 
practices to support his expenses. 



if 

CICERo's OFFICES. 91 

honour by containing the master, and not the 
master by possessing the house. And, as in 
other matters, he is to regard others as well as 
himself. Thus, a nobleman who is to entertain 
a great many guests of all denominations in his 
house, ought to be very careful that it be roomy ; 
but a great house often reflects discredit upon its 
master, when it has an air of loneliness, espe- 
cially if it have been occupied by another master. 
It is a mortifying thing to hear passengers calling 
out with the poet, c Oh ! what a falling off is 
here !'* and, indeed, at present that saying is but 
too applicable to a great many houses. 

But you are to take care, especially if you 
build for yourself, not to make your house ex- 
travagantly grand and costly. Even the example 
of an excess of this kind is of the most perni- 
cious consequence. For most people, particu- 
larly in this respect, imitate the example of their 
leaders. For instance, who imitates the excel- 
lent Lucius Lucullus in his virtues ? But many 
there are who ape him in the magnificence of his 
villas. This spirit is, therefore, to be restrained 
within the bounds of that moderation, which 
ought to run through all the practice and eco- 
nomy of life. But of this enough. 

* what.] Orig. Domus antiqua ! 

Heu quam dispari dominare Domino ! 
As this is a very bald verse, I have taken the freedom to sup- 
ply the sense from an expression of the English Ennius, which 
is applicable to the same purpose. 









•« 

92 CICERO's OFFICES. 

Now in all our undertakings we are to regard 
three things. First, that appetite be subservient 
to reason, which is of all things the best fitted 
for preserving the moral duties. We are, 
secondly, to examine the importance of our un- 
%A dertaking, that we may proportion our attention 
or labour so as it may be neither more nor less 
than the occasion requires. Thirdly, we are 






to regulate every thing that comes under the 
head of magnificence according to decency and 
dignity. Now, the best rule for our regulation 
is, to observe the graceful which I have re- 
commended, and to go no further. But of those 
three heads, the most excellent is, that of making 
our appetites subservient to our reason . 

XL. I am now to speak concerning the order 
and the timing of things. This is a science that 
comprehends what the Greeks call evraf»«, not 
that which we Romans call moderation, an ex- 
pression that implies keeping within bounds ; 
whereas the Evrafia here meant, implies a pre- 
servation of order. As therefore we call that 
likewise moderatio, its definition by the Stoics is, 
that it is the knowledge of ranging under proper 
heads, whatever we do or say. Therefore, the 
signification of order and of arrangement seems 
to be the same. For they define order to be the 
disposing of things into fitting and convenient 
places. Now, they tell us, that the place for an 
action is the opportunity for doing it. The 



CICERo's OFFICES. 93 

proper opportunity for action being called by the 
Greeks «5k«p»«, and by the Latins, occasio, or 
occasion. Thus, as I have already observed, 
that which we call discretion, is the knowledge 
of acting according to the fitness of a conjecture. 

But prudence, of which we have treated in the 
beginning of this Book, may admit of the same 
definition. Under this head, however, I speak 
of moderation and temperance, and the like 
virtues. I shall therefore, in its proper place, 
speak to all the properties of prudence. But at 
present I am to treat of those virtues I have been 
so long speaking' of, which relate to morality, 
and the love of those with whom we live. 

Such then should be the regularity of all our 
actions, that in our life, as in an Oration sup- 
ported equally throughout, every thing ought to 
agree and correspond. For it would be unbe- 
coming and highly blameable, should we, when 
upon a serious subject, introduce the language 
of the jovial or the effeminate. When Pericles 
had for his colleague in the praetorship So- 
phocles the poet, as they were discoursing upon 
the affairs of the magistracy, a beautiful boy by 
accident passing by, " What a charming boy !" 
said Sophocles ; but Pericles very properly told 
him, " A magistrate ought to have a restraint 
not only upon his hands, but his eyes." Now 
Sophocles, had he said the same thing at a 
wrestling match, would not have been liable to 







94 CICERo's OFFICES. 

the reprimand, such importance there is in the 
time and place. A man, for instance, who is 
^/going to plead a cause, if as he walks along he 
falls into musing, or appears more thoughtful 
than ordinary, he is not blamed ; but should he 
do this at an entertainment, it would be ill-breed- 
ing in him for not distinguishing times. 

But those actions that are in flat opposition to 
good-breeding, such, for instance, as singing in 
the forum, or any such absurdity, are so easily 
discernible, that they require no great degree of 
reprehension or advice to correct them. But in 
considerable failings, and such as are discernible 
only to a few, are to be more carefully avoided. 
As in musical instruments, the smallest untune- 
ableness is perceived by a judging ear ; thus in 
life we are to guard against all discord, and the 
rather as the harmony of morals is greater and 
much more valuable than that of sounds. 

XLI. Thus, as the ear is sensible of the small- 
est discord in musical instruments, so, if we 
were accurately and attentively to observe ble- 
mishes, we might make great discoveries from 
very trifling circumstances. The cast of the 
eye, the bending or unbending of the brow, an 
air of dejection or cheerfulness, laughter, the 
tone of words, silence, the raising or falling of 
the voice, and the like circumstances, we may 
easily form a judgment which of them are in 
their proper state, and which of them jar with 



CICERo's OFFICES. 95 

duty and nature. Now in this case, it is ad- 
viseable to judge from others, of the condition 
and properties of every one of those, so as to be 
able in ourselves to avoid those things that are 
unbecoming in others. For it happens, I know 
not how, that we perceive any blemish more 
readily in others than we do in ourselves. There- 
fore, when masters mimic the faults of boys that 
they may amend them, those boys are very easily 
set right. 

Neither is it improper, in order to fix our 
choice in a doubtful matter, if we apply to men 
of learning and experience, and learn their sense 
of the several kinds of duty ; for the greatest 
part of mankind are too apt to follow their own 
dispositions ; and in those cases, we are to ex- 
amine not only what a man says, but what he 
thinks, and upon what grounds he thinks it. 
For as painters, statuaries, and even poets, want 
to have their works canvassed by the public in 
order to correct any thing that is generally dis- 
liked, and examine both by themselves and with 
others where the defect lies ; thus we ought to 
make use of the j udgment of others to do, and 
not to do, to alter and correct, a great many 
things. 

As to actions resulting from the manners or 
civil constitutions of a people, I can lay down no 
other rules than those very manners and consti- 
tutions. But men ought not to be under the 



96 CtCERo's OFFICES. 

mistake to imagine that if Socrates or Aristippus 
acted or spoke in opposition to the manners and 
civil constitutions of their country, they therefore 
have the same right to transgress them. For this 
was a right they acquired by their great and di- 
vine qualities. But as to the whole system of 
the Cynics, we are absolutely to reject it, because 
it is inconsistent with morality, without which 
nothing can be honest, nothing can be virtuous. 

Now it is our duty to esteem and to honour, 
'\$h in the same manner as if they were dignified 

with titles or vested with command, those men 
whose lives have been distinguished by great and 
glorious actions, by their patriotism, and by the 
services they have done, or continue to do, to 
their country. We are likewise to have a great 
regard for old age, to pay a deference to magis- 
trates ; to distinguish between what we owe to a 
fellow-citizen and a foreigner, and to consider 
whether that foreigner comes in a public or 
a private capacity. In short, that I may be no 
longer particular, we ought to regard, to culti- 
vate, and to cherish the good will and the society 
of all mankind. 

XLII. Now I am to give you my general sen- 
timents with regard to what trades and emolu- 
ments become, and what are to be deemed below, 
a gentleman. In the first place, we are to de- 
test those emoluments that incur the public 
hatred ; such as those of tax-brokers and usurers. 



cicero's OFFICES. 97 

We are likewise to account as ungenteel and 
mean the gains of all hired workmen, who earn 
money not by their art but their labour ; for 
their wages are in consideration of their ser- 
vitude. We are likewise to despise all who 
retail from merchants goods for present sale ; 
for they never can succeed unless they lie most 
abominably. Now nothing is more disgraceful 
than insincerity. All labourers are by their 
profession mean. For a workshop can contain 
nothing befitting a gentleman. We are likewise 
to disclaim all trades that serve the purposes of 
sensuality, such as, to speak after Terence, large 
fishmongers, butchers, cooks, pastry-cooks, and 
fishermen ; to whom we shall add, if you please, 
perfumers, dancers, and the whole tribe of 
professed gamesters. 

But those professions that are founded upon 
scientific principles, or conducive to public 
utility, such as medicine, architecture, the 
teaching the practice of virtue, are honourable 
in their several professors. As to merchandizing, 
if petty, it is disgraceful ; but if it is extensive and 
large, dealing with all parts of the world, and giv- 
ing bread to numbers in a fair creditable way, it is 
not so despicable. But if a merchant, satiated, or 
rather satisfied with his profits, as he sometimes 
used to leave the deep, and make the harbour, shall 
from the harbour step into an estate and lands; 
such a man challenges our highest regard. For 

H 



■: 









98 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

you must know, that of ail gainful professions, 
nothing is better, nothing more pleasing, nothing 
more delightful, nothing better becomes a man 
U or a gentleman, than agriculture. But as I have 
handled that subject at large in my Cato Major, 
I refer you thither for what falls under this head. 

XLIII. I have I think sufficiently explained 
in what manner the duties are derived from the 
constituent parts of virtue. Now it often may 
happen that an emulation and a contest may 
arise amongst things that are in themselves 
virtuous. Of two virtues which is preferable ? 
A division that Pansetius has overlooked. For 
as all virtue is the result of four qualities, 
knowledge, justice, magnanimity, and mode- 
ration, so in the choice of a duty, those qualities 
must necessarily come in competition with one 
another. 

I am therefore of opinion that the duties of 
justice are more agreeable to nature than those 
arising from knowledge. This may be proved 
from the following case. Supposing a wise man 
were in that very affluent situation of life as to 
be able with great leisure to contemplate and 
attend to every object that is worthy his know- 
ledge ; yet if his condition be so solitary as to 
have no company with mankind, he would 
, Ji prefer death to it. Of all virtues, the most 
leading is that which the Greeks call So^»», for 
that sagacity which they term fyow»$ has another 



CICERo's OFFICES. 99 

signification, as it implies the knowledge of 
what things are to be desired, and what to be 
avoided. But that wisdom to which I have 
given the lead, is the knowledge of things divine 
and human, which comprehends the community 
of gods and men, and their society within 
themselves. If that be, as it certainly is, the ^ 
highest of all objects, it follows of course that 
the duty resulting from this community is the ^^^ 
highest of all duties. For the knowledge and 
contemplation of nature, is in a manner lame 
and unfinished, if it is followed by no activity ; 
now activity is most perspicuous when it is 
exerted in protecting the rights of mankind. 

It therefore promotes the interests of society, 
and is for that reason preferable to knowledge ; 
as is to be seen from the unvarying constant 
practice and judgment of every man of virtue. 
For who is so eager in pursuing and examining 
the nature of things, that if while he is handling 
and contemplating the noblest objects of know- 
ledge, he is told that his country is threatened 
with the most imminent danger, and that it is in 
his power to assist and relieve her, would not 
instantly abandon and fling from him all those 
studies, even though he thought they would 
lead him to know how to number the stars, or 
measure the dimensions of the world? And 
he would do the same were the safety of a friend 
or a parent concerned or endangered. From 

h2 



100 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

this consideration I infer, that the duties of 
justice are preferable to the studies and duties 
of knowledge, because the former hath for their 
object the welfare of the human race, which of 
all other considerations ought to be the most 
dear to mankind. 
; . XLIV. But some have employed their whole 

lives in the pursuits of knowledge, and yet have 
not declined to contribute to the utility and 
advantage of society. For they have even bred 
up pupils to be good patriots and excellent 
magistrates. Thus Lysis, the Pythagorean, 
educated Epaminondas of Thebes, as did Plato, 
Dion of Syracuse ; and whatever services I 
performed, if I did perform any to my country, 
were owing to my coming into public life, after 
being furnished and adorned with knowledge 
by men of learning. 

Nor do those patriot philosophers content 
themselves in their life-time only to instruct and 
educate pupils ; but they continue to do the same 
after death, by the monuments of their learning; 
for they neglect no point that relates to the 
constitution, the manners and the morals of 
their country; so that it appears as if all their 
leisure hours had been employed for our ad- 
vantage. Thus it is plain, that men who give 
up their time to the study of learning and 
wisdom, employ all their understanding and all 
their skill chiefly to the service of mankind. It 



CICERo's OFFICES. 101 

is therefore most serviceable to the public for a 
man to speak copiously, provided it is to the 
purpose, than for a man to think ever so justly, 
without being able to express himself; the 
reason is, because good sense rests entirely 
within ourselves, but eloquence affects those of 
the same society with ourselves. 

Now as the swarms of bees do not assemble 
in order to form their combs, but as they have 
from nature the property of associating together, 
they then form them ; thus men being through 
a much stronger principle associated by nature, 
assiduously apply themselves to speaking and 
thinking. Therefore, unless knowledge is con- 
nected with that virtue which consists in doing 
service to mankind, that is, in improving human 
society, all its properties are lonely and barren. 

In like manner greatness of soul, when utterly 
disregardful of the company and society of 
men, becomes savage and uncouth. Hence it 
follows, that the company and the community 
of men are preferable to mere speculative 
knowledge. 

Neither is that maxim true which some hold, 
as if human communities and societies had been 
instituted, because we cannot without the help 
of others supply the wants of nature to which 
by the tenor of our lives we are subjected. 
But if we should be furnished by a kind of 
a magical wand, with every thing that relates to 



102 cicero's offices. 

food and raiment, that then every man of ex- 
celling genius, laying aside all other consider- 
ations, would apply himself to knowledge and 
learning. The fact is not so ; for such a man, 
in such a case, would avoid loneliness, and look 
out for a companion in his studies ; he would 
then want sometimes to teach, and sometimes to 
learn, to be sometimes a hearer, and sometimes 
a speaker. All duty therefore that operates for 
the good of human community and society, is 
preferable to that duty which is bounded by 
barren speculation and knowledge. 

XLV. Here perhaps a question may arise, 
whether the duties of that society which is most 
suitable to nature, are preferable to moderation 
y and decency ? By no means. For somethings 
are partly so disgraceful, and partly so criminal 
in their nature, that a wise man would not 
commit them, even to save his country. 
Possidonius has given us many particulars of 
this kind ; but they are so execrable, that they 
are abominable, even to the ear. A wise man 
would not undertake such things, even to serve 
his country, nor would his country undertake 
them to serve herself. But it fortunately hap- 
pens, that there never can be a conjuncture, 
when the public interest shall require from a 
wise man the performance of such actions. 

Thus have I proved, that in the choice of our 
duties we are to prefer that kind of duty that 






CICERO^ OFFICES. 103 

contributes to the good of society. For well 
directed activity is always the result of know- 
ledge and learning. And therefore it is of 
more consequence to act properly, than to 
deliberate justly. But I have already treated of 
this ; for the matter is now so fully laid open, 
that it is easy for every man in the study of his 
duties, to see which is preferable. Now in 
society there are degrees of duties by which 
every man may understand what belongs to 
himself. The first is owing to the immortal 
gods, the second to our country, the third to our 
parents, and so on through all the relations of 
life. 

From this short state of my subject we per- 
ceive that men are sometimes not only in doubt, 
whether a thing is virtuous or disgraceful ; but 
likewise when two virtuous things are proposed, 
which is most so ? This head, as I said before, 
was omitted by Pansetius. But to proceed. 



CICERO DE OFFICIIS; 

HIS TREATISE 

CONCERNING 

THE MORAL DUTIES OF MANKIND. 

tBOOK II. 
arcus, my Son, 

I think I have in the former Book suffi- 
ciently explained in what manner our duties are 
derived from morality, and every kind of virtue. 
It now remains that I treat of those kinds of 
duties that relate to the improvement of life, and 
to the acquirement of those means which men 
employ for the attainment of wealth and interest. 
In this inquiry, as I have already observed, I 
will treat of what is useful, and what is not so. 
Of several utilities I shall speak of that which is 
more useful, or chiefly useful. Of all this I 
shall treat, after premising a few words con- 
cerning my own intention and purpose. 

My works it is true have prompted a great 
many to the exercise not only of reading but of 
writing ; but I sometimes am apprehensive, that 
several of our great men dislike the name of 
philosophy, and are surprized at my having 
employed so much of my pains and time in that 



106 CICERo's OFFICES. 

study. For my part, as long as the state was 
under the management of those into whose 
hands she had thrown herself, I applied all my 
attention and thought upon the service of the 
public. But when the government was en- 
grossed by one person, when there was an end 
of all public deliberation and authority: when 
I in short had lost those excellent patriots who 
were my companions, when I saved my country* 
I neither abandoned myself to that anguish of 
spirit, which had I given way to it, must have 
consumed me, nor did I indulge those pleasures 
that are disgraceful to a man of learning.* 

Would to the heavens the constitution had 
remained in its original state; and that it had 
not fallen into the hands of men whose aim was 
not to alter but to destroy it! For while our 
country was free, I used in the first place to be 
more intent upon the propriety of my conduct 
than of my writing. In the next place I should 
not in my writings have treated upon this sub- 
ject, but as I often did upon my own conduct. 
But when the constitution of my country, to 
which I applied all my care, thoughts, and 
studies, ceased to exist, then those public and 
senatorial studies were silenced. 

* Man of learning.'] This is a tacit reproach upon Hor- 
tensius Lucullus, and some others of the great men who 
retired to their country seats and amusements during the civil 
war and Caesar's usurpation. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 107 

But, as the mind of man cannot be inactive, 
and as my early life was employed in the studies 
of morality, I thought I could not apply a more 
virtuous relief to the anguish of my spirit than 
by returning to philosophy ; having, when 
young, spent a great deal of my time in its study. 
When I afterwards entered upon public offices 
and devoted myself to the service of my country, 
yet I still gave to philosophy all the time I could 
spare from the duties I owed to my friends and 
the public. But I spent it all in reading having 
no leisure for writing. 

II. From all my deep distresses, therefore this 
good has arisen, that I have reduced into writing, 
matters in which my countrymen are not suffi- 
ciently instructed, though nothing is more worthy 
their attention. For, just heavens ! what is 
more desirable, what is more excellent, than 
wisdom ? What can more dignify a man ? They 
therefore who court her are termed philosophers, 
for philosophy implies nothing but the love of 
wisdom. 

Now the ancient philosophers defined wisdom 
to be the knowledge of things divine and human, 
and of the causes by which they are effected. A 
study that if any man despises, I know not what 
study he can esteem. 

For if we seek the entertainment of the mind, 
or a respite from affliction, what is comparable 
to those pursuits that are always contributing 



108 



CICERO S OFFICES. 



somewhat that relates to improving the welfare 
and happiness of life ? And if we seek to re- 
establish the principles of self-consistency and 
virtue, either this is the art, or there is absolutely 
no art by which we can attain them. And to 
say that the greatest object may be without an 
art, when we see that the most inconsiderable are 
not without it, betrays great thoughtlessness and 
a great mistake in the most important matters. 
VV )V Now if virtue has any fixed principles where can 

they be found if we abandon this study ? But 
this point is more particularly treated in my ex- 
hortation* to philosophy, which I have made 
the subject of another book. At present all 
my intention is to explain the reasons why 
being divested of all public character, I choose 
to apply myself to this study preferably to all 
others. 

In the course of this inquiry I am aware it 
may be objected by some men of learning and 
knowledge, whether I act consistently with my- 
self when I treat upon different subjects, and 
when as now, I am laying down rules for our 
duty, and at the same time deny that man can 
have a perception of any object. I could wish 
those gentlemen were thoroughly acquainted 
with my way of thinking. I am none of those 
whose reason is always wandering in the mist of 

* Exhortation.] This book was entitled by our author 
Hortensius, but it is now lost all to a few fragments. 



CICERO's OFFICES. 109 

uncertainty without having a fixed point of pur- 
suit. For if we abolish all the rules not only of 
reasoning- but of living, what must become of 
reason, nay of life itself? For my own part, 
while others maintain some things to be certain, 
and others uncertain, I say on the other side that 
some things are probable, and others not so 
probable. 

What therefore hinders me from following 
whatever appears to me to be most probable, and 
from rejecting what is otherwise ; and while I 
avoid the arrogance of being dogmatically posi- 
tive, escape the imputation of rashness which is 
highly inconsistent with wisdom.* Now our 
sect maintains either side of a question, because 
this very probability cannot appear, unless the 
reasons both for and against it are thoroughly 
canvassed. But if I mistake not, I have with 
sufficient accuracy discussed this point in my 
Academics. As to you, my dear son, though you 
are now employed in the study of the oldest and 
noblest philosophy under Cratippus, who greatly 
resembles the founders of that glorious sect, yet 
was I desirous you should be acquainted with 
these my sentiments, which are so correspond- 
ing with your system. But to proceed in what 
I propose. 

* The reader will understand this passage best by consulting 
our author's treatise de Fmibus, or concerning the end of things, 
good and evil, and his other philosophical works. 



^ 



110 CICERO's OFFICES. 

III. Having laid down the five principles upon 
which we pursue our duty, two of which relate 
to what is graceful and moral, two to the enjoy- 
ments of life, such as wealth, interest, and power, 
the fifth to forming a right judgment; if there 
should appear to be any clashing between the 
principles I have mentioned, I have finished that 
head of virtue with which I desire you should 
be best acquainted. Now the subject I am now 
to treat of, is neither more nor less than what we 
call utility ; in which the prepossessions of man- 
kind have been so erroneous that their practice has 
insensibly arrived to that degree of absurdity as 
to distinguish between what is moral and what is 
profitable, to setup what is virtuous against what 
is useful, and what is useful against what is vir- 
tuous ; than which doctrine nothing can be more 
destructive to human society. 

It is upon solid virtuous principles, and for 
the best reasons that philosophers distinguish 
only in idea, those three kinds which really are 
blended together. For they give it as their opi- 
nion that whatever is just is profitable ; and in 
like manner whatever is virtuous is just ; from 
whence it follows that virtue and utility are one 
and the same thing. They who are insensible 
of the truth of this distinction are generally 
men who being fond of artful crafty knaves, 
mistake cunning for wisdom. Now we are to 
rectify all such mistakes ; and all the reasoning 



BiQ'l OFFICES. Ill 

of mankind upon this head ought to turn upon 
seeking the ends they propose, by such means as 
are virtuous and just, and not by such as are 
dishonest and wicked. 

The particulars therefore, that relate to the im- 
provement of social life are partly inanimate, 
such as gold, silver, the fruits of the earth, and 
the like ; and partly animal which have their 
several instincts and affections. Now of these 
some are void of, and some are endowed with 
reason. The animals void of reason are horses, 
oxen, with other brute creatures, and bees who 
by their labours contribute somewhat to the 
service and existence of mankind. As to the 
animals endowed with reason they are of two 
kinds, one the gods, the other men. Piety and 
sanctity render the gods propitious ; and next 
to the gods, mankind is best assisted by men. 

The same division holds as to thing's that are 
hurtful and prejudicial. But as we are not to 
suppose the gods to be hurtful to mankind, we 
therefore conclude that putting them out of the 
question, man may be most beneficial and most 
prejudicial to man. For even the very inani- 
mated beings 1 have mentioned, are generally 
procured through man's labour ; nor should we 
have had them but by his art and industry, nor 
can we apply them but by his management. For 
instance, the art of preserving health, navigation, 
the enjoying and preserving the fruits of the 



112 CICERo's OFFICES. 

earth, are all of them the effects of human in- 
dustry. 

Nay the exporting what is superfluous, and 
the importing what is necessary, must have been 
things entirely unknown, had not mankind 
applied themselves to those labours. In like 
manner, neither stones for our use, nor iron, nor 
brass, nor gold, nor silver, would have been dug 
from the bowels of the earth, but by the toil and 
art of man. 

IV. As to buildings which either defend 
us from the violence of the cold, or shelter us 
from the inconveniencies of the heat, how could 
they have originally been invented for the use of 
man or afterwards repaired when ruined by tem- 
pests, earthquakes or time, had not mankind in 
social life learned how convenient and comfort- 
able those things are ? From whence but from 
the labour of man, could we have had aqueducts, 
the cuts of rivers, water-mounds, and artificial 
harbours ? From those and a great many other 
instances it is plain, that we could by no manner 
of means have, without the art and industry of 
man, reaped the benefits and advantages arising 
from inanimated things. In short, where would 
have been the service and assistance which the 
brute creation is of to society, had it not been for 
the assistance of man ? Men undoubtedly were 
the first who discovered the employments proper 
for every dumb creature ; nor could we even at 



CICERo's OFFICES. 113 

this time either feed, tame, preserve, or employ 
them, so as to profit by their labours in due ^Jr 
season, without the help of man. It is man who ,>^ 
destroys whatever is hurtful and procures what- 
ever may be beneficial. Why should I enume- 
rate the variety of arts which are the life of life? 
It is this variety that supplies us with food and 
raiment ; that gives health to the sick and plea- 
sure to the sound. 

Polished by those arts, the life of man is so 
different from the existence and the appearance 
of brutes. As to cities, they neither could have 
been built nor peopled but by men meeting in 
society : hence were formed laws and manners, 
the equitable meaning of laws, and the regu- 
lated order of life. Then followed gentleness of 
disposition and love of morality ; security in 
living, and the supply of all our wants by giving 
and receiving, and by the mutual intercourse 
between services and benefits. 

V. Writers are more prolix than they need to 
be on this head. For Pansetius employs a great 
many words to prove what is self-evident, that no 
man, whether he be a commander of an army, or 
a leader in the state, has ever been able to per- 
form what was great in the one, or salutary in the 
other, unless he was seconded by men. As in- 
stances of this, he mentions Themistocles, 
Pericles, Cyrus, Alexander, and Agesilaus, who 
he says without the aid of men, never could 



114 CICERo's OFFICES. 

have achieved so many glorious exploits. Thus 
in a matter that is undoubted, he brings 
evidences that are unnecessary. But as the 
assemblage or agreement of men amongst 
themselves is productive of the greatest benefits ; 
so is there no such execrable pestilence as that 
arising to man from man. We have a treatise 
of Dicsearchus* an eminent and eloquent 
Peripatetic, concerning the destruction of man- 
kind ; and after collecting together all the 
different causes, such as those of inundations, 
pestilence, wastes, and those sudden attacks of 
swarms of creatures, by which he tells us whole 
nations have been destroyed ; he then calculates 
how many more men have been destroyed by 
men, that is by wars and seditions, than by every 
other species of calamity. 

As this point therefore admits of no doubt 
that man is both the greatest blessing and the 
greatest curse of man, I lay it down as a chief 
property of virtue, the reconciling the affections 
of mankind to herself, and employing them to 
her own purposes. Therefore all the appjication 
and management of inanimated things, and of 
brutes for the use of mankind, is effected by the 
mechanic arts. But the quick and ready zeal of 
mankind for advancing and enlarging our con- 
ditions, is excited through the wisdom and virtue 
of the foest of mankind . 

* Dicsearchus, born in Sicily and a disciple of Aristotle. 



■tl 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 115 

For virtue in general consists of three pro- 
perties. First in discerning in every subject 
what is true and unadulterated ; what is best^^*^^ 
fitted to every one ; what will be the consequence 
of such or such a thing ; how one thing arises 
-from another, and how effects proceed from 
causes. The next property of virtue is to calm ^ h^ 
those violent disorders of the mind, which the 
Greeks call vaK and to render obedient to reason 
those affections which they call »p/**». The third 
property is to treat with discretion and skill 
those with whom we are joined in society, that Jja*^ 
by their means we may have the complete and 
full enjoyment of all that nature stands in need 7 
of; and likewise by them repel every injury 
that may be offered us, and avenge ourselves 
of those who have endeavoured to do us hurt, 
by punishing them as far as is consistent with 
equity and humanity. 

VI. I shall soon consider the means to acquire 
this art of winning and retaining the affections 
of mankind, but I must premise somewhat. 
Who is insensible what great influence fortune 
has either upon our prosperity or adversity? 
When we sail with her blast, we are carried to 
the most desirable landing places : when against 
it to the most melancholy. With regard to the 
accidents of fortune she very seldom exerts her 
power ; for instance in the first place in cases of 
storms, tempests, shipwrecks v ruins, or burnings 
i2 



116 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

from inanimated things ; in the next place in 
cases of blows, bites, or attacks from brutes. 
Those accidents I say happen more seldom. 

Now with regard to the defeat of armies, of 
which we have just now seen three different 
instances,* and often we see more ; the overthrow 
of generals, as was lately the case of a great and 
an excellent personage ;j* together with unpopu- 
larity, by which the worthiest citizens have been 
expelled, over-borne, or exiled ; and on the other 
hand prosperous events, honours, commands, 
and victories ; though all those are influenced 
by chance, yet neither the bad nor the good 
could have been effected without the concurring 
assistance and inclinations of mankind. This 
being premised, I am now to point out the 
manner in which we may invite and direct the 
inclinations of mankind, so as to serve our 
interests ; and should what I say on this head 
appear too long, let it be compared with the 
importance of the subject, and then perhaps it 
will seem too short. 

Whatever therefore people perform for any 
man, either to raise or to dignify him, is done 
either through kindness when they have a motive 
of affection for him ; or to do him honour in 

* Three armies."] Meaning the defeat of Pompey at Phar- 
salia, of his sons at Munda in Spain, and of Scipio in Afric. 
all by Julius Caesar. 

f Personage."] Pompey the great. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 117 

admiration of his virtue, and when they think 
him worthy of the most exalted station ; or when 
they have such an opinion of him as to think 
that in serving him, they serve themselves ; or 
when they are afraid of his power ; or when they 
hope somewhat from him ; as when princes or 
the leading men in the state propose certain 
largesses ; or lastly, when they are engaged by 
money and bribery ; a motive that of all other is 
the vilest and dirtiest, both with regard to the 
corrupted and the corruptor. 

For matters are come to a shameful pass, when 
money must be employed to do what virtue 
ought to effect. But as this resource is some- 
times necessary, I will show in what manner it is 
to be employed, after I have treated of some 
thing's that are more the properties of virtue. 
Now mankind submit to the command and 
power of another for several reasons. For they 
are induced by the affection they have for him, 
or the great services he has done them ; or by 
his transcendent worth, or by the hopes that 
their submission will turn to their own account, 
or from the fear of their being forced to submit, 
or from the hopes of reward, or the power of 
promises? Or lastly (which is often the case 
in our government), they are positively hired to 
serve him. 

VII. Now of all things affection is the most 
proper for strengthening, and fear for weakening 






118 CICEKo's OFFICES. 

an interest. Ennius says very truly, * People 
hate the man they fear, and wish to see the 
man dead whom they hate/ It has been 
lately* if it was not before well known that no 
man's power can resist a combined detestation. 
Nor indeed is the destruction of that tyrant, 
who by arms forced his country to endure him, 
and who governs it even after his death, the 
only instance of the force of public detestation 
against a public nuisance, for the latter end of 
other tyrants have been like unto his. Few of 
them have escaped a similar fate. For fear is 
but a bad guardian to the permanency, whereas 
affection is faithful even to the perpetuity of power. 
But the truth is, cruelty must be employed by 
those who keep others in subjection by force ; 
as a master must be cruel to his slaves if they 
cannot otherwise be managed. But of all mad- 
men they are the maddest who in a free state 
make fear the instrument of their success. The 
power of a private man may weaken the force of 
the laws, it may intimidate the spirit of liberty, 
yet some time or other they will emerge and be- 
come visible, either by silent intimations or the 
private sense of the people as to public honours. 
For the stings of libertyt when suspended, are 

* Lately."] Cicero here alludes to the assassination of Caesar 
n the senate. 

f Liberty. 7 } Orig. Acriores autem morsus sunt intermissa li- 
ber tatis quam retentce. I own I cannot think that, this fine ob- 



CICERo's OFFICES. 119 

more keen than when slackened. We ought 
therefore to follow this plain, this indisputed 
maxim, that dread should be removed and affec- 
tion reconciled, not only to secure the dignities 
we already have, but for the acquirement of 
further interest and power; and this is far the 
readiest way to answer our designs, both in our 
private affairs and matters of government. For 
it is a necessary consequence, that men fear 
those very persons by whom they wish to be 
feared. 

For what judgment can we form of the elder 
Dionysius?* With what pangs of dread was he 
tortured ? When being jealous even of his bar- 
ber's razor, he singed his face and beard with 
burning coals? In what distraction may it not 

serration has ever been understood either by critics, trans- 
lators, or commentators ; Dr. Cockman translates it thus : 
" And liberty, after she has been chained up awhile, is always 
more curst and bites deeper than she would otherwise have 
done had she been never restrained." This is very good sense, 
but not the sense of Cicero ; who did not intend to compare 
liberty to a bitch. He uses the words intermissa and retenta 
in other places (Vide Tusc. Disp. L. i. C. 1. p. 1.) to signify, 
the first, a suspension or interruption, and the latter a slack- 
ening or relaxation. This meaning therefore is, that the 
spirit of liberty is always more keen after its operations have 
been totally suspended (as was the case under Caesar), than 
when they are only slackened, as was the case under the tri- 
umvirate. 

* Dionysius."] This elder Dionysius was tyrant of Syracuse 
about the year of Rome 447. His son and successor of the 
same name was expelled by Dione, the disciple of Plato. 



120 CICERo's OFFICES. 

be supposed Alexander the Phaerean* to have 
lived? Who (as we learn), though he loved his 
wife Thebe to distraction, yet whenever he came 
into her bed-chamber from his debauches, 
ordered a Thracian, nay, one whom we are told 
had his skin stigmatised with the brands of bar- 
barism,f to go before him with a drawn sword ; 
and sent certain of his attendants to search the 
chests of the ladies, and even their clothes, for 
concealed weapons. What a wretch ! to think 
a barbarous branded slave could be more faith- 
ful to him than the wife of his bosom ! Yet was 
he not deceived, for he was put to death by her 
in a fit of jealousy ; nor, indeed, can any power 
be so well founded as to last if it is founded on 
fear. 

We have another instance of Phalaris, J above 
all others a tyrant most ingeniously cruel, who 
did not, like the Alexander I have just mentioned, 

* Alexander the Pharean.] This tyrant is mentioned by 
Ovid in Ibin, and by Valerius Maximus, and other authors, as 
a monster of cruelty. 

f Stigmatised with brands of barbarism.'] The Thracians 
were accounted the fiercest of all the barbarians, and they had 
a custom, which was in common with many of the barbarous 
nations, of making marks with hot or other irons upon their 
skins. The Greeks and Romans sometimes marked all their 
slaves in that manner after they came into their possessions. 

% Phalarisq He was tyrant of Agrigentum in Sicily, and 
famous inventor of the brazen bull j he was however a man 
of letters. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 121 

perish by a private cabal, nor by the hands of a 
few conspirators, like our tyrant of Rome, but 
was attacked by the collective body of all the 
Agrigentines. Nay, did not the Macedonians 
abandon Demetrius, and with one consent sub- 
mit themselves to Pyrrhus? What need I say 
more ! were not the Lacedaemonians, for their 
tyrannical government, abandoned by almost all 
their allies, who stood by the unconcerned spec- 
tators of their defeat by Leuctra ? 

VIII. Upon such a subject it is with more 
pleasure I quote foreign than domestic instances ; 
as long, however, as the people of Rome made 
beneficence, and not injustice, the rule of their 
government, their wars were undertaken either 
to defend their allies or to protect their empire, 
and they always made an humane use of their 
conquest, without using more than necessary 
severity. The senate was the harbour and the 
refuge of kings, people, and nations. 

But the noblest and most distinguished ambi- 
tion of our then magistrates and generals was 
upon the principles of equity and honour, to de- 
fend their provinces and their allies. Hence it 
was that they seem to take the whole world 
under their patronage* rather than under their 
government ; for some time we were insensibly 
abating of this practice and those principles; 

* Patronage.] Orig. Itaque Mud patricinium orbis terra, 
verius quam imperium, poterat nominari. 



122 CICERo's OFFICES. 

but when Sylla got the better, we entirely lost 
them : for seeing the cruelties which were every 
day exercised upon our fellow-citizens, we ceased 
to think that our allies could suffer any injury. 
He therefore, by inhuman conquest crowned a 
glorious cause ;* for he had the presumption to 
declare, when the goods of patriots, men of for- 
tune, and to say no more, of Romans, were sell- 
ing at public auction, that he was disposing of 
his own booty. He was followed by a man 
whose cause was impious and his conquest still 
more detestable, who did not indeed sell the 
effects of private citizens, but involved in one 
system of calamity whole provinces and coun- 
tries. Thus foreign nations, being harassed and 
ruined, we saw Marseilles! the type of our 
perished constitution carried in triumph, after 
being the cause of triumph to all our generals 
who returned from Transalpine wars. Was not 
this the most flagrant indignity the sun ever be- 
held ! I should go on to recount a great many 
of his other wicked oppressions which our 
allies suffered. Deservedly therefore were we 
punished ; for had we not borne with impunity 

* Glorious" cause.} Sylla's pretence for taking up arms was 
to defend the nobility against the encroachments of the com- 
mons, headed by Marius, whose party Caesar revived. 

f Marseilles.'} This was a favourite state with the Roman 
republicans 5 but having too inconsiderately shut their gates 
against and provoked Caesar, he treated it as is here de- 
scribed. 



cicero's offices. 123 

the crimes of many, never could so much power 
have been engrossed by one. The inheritance 
of his private estate descended indeed to but a 
few, but that of his public ambition devolved 
upon many ruffians. 

I may venture to say, that there never can be 
wanting a source and motive for civil war while 
men of abandoned principles call to mind that 
bloody sale, and hope again to see it renewed. 
For when the spear* under which it was made 
was set up for his kinsman the dictator, by Pub- 
lius Sylla, the same Sylla, thirty-six years after, 
was present at a still more detestable sale ; while 
another wretch, who in that dictatorship was 
only a clerk, in the late one rose to be city- 
quaestor. From all this we may conclude, that 
while such tempting rewards are presented, 
there never can be an end of our civil wars. 
The walls of our city it is true are standing, 
and that too in daily expectation of utter de- 
struction ; but as to our constitution, it is abso- 
lutely undone; and, that I may return to my 
purpose, all those miseries have befallen us, be- 
cause we chose to govern rather by fear than 
by love and affection. If this was the case with 

* Spear. ,] Our author here alludes to the sales of the estates 
of the Roman citizens made by Sylla j and which always were 
amongst the Romans carried on under a spear stuck into the 
ground. The like sales were afterwards made by some of 
Caesar's party. 



124 CICERO S OFFICES^ 

- 

the people of Rome for perverting the ends of 
government, what can we think will be the con- 
sequence with regard to private persons ? Now, 
as it is plain, that the force of kindness is so 
strong, and that of fear so weak, I am to dis- 
course of the means by which we may most 
readily attain to that endearment, linked with 
honour and confidence which I have proposed. 

But of this we do not all stand in the same 
need ; for every man, according to the different 
purpose of his life, is to take the proper measures 
that are necessary for making himself beloved 
by the many or the few. One thing, however, 
is chiefly and indispensably necessary, that our 
connexions with those friends who love our per- 
sons and embrace our interests, should be indis- 
soluble ; for this is the only particular in which 
men of the highest and middle stations of life 
agree, and it is attainable by both in much the 
same manner. All, perhaps, are not equally de- 
sirous of honours, of popularity, and public 
favour ; but the man who is furnished with 
them is greatly assisted by them in acquiring 
other advantages of life, as well as friendship. 

IX. But I have in another book, which is en- 
titled Leelius, treated of friendship. I am now 
to speak of popularity, though I have already 
published two books upon that subject :* let me, 

* Subject."] This treatise is now lost. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 125 

however touch upon it, as it greatly conduces to 
the right management of the more important 
affairs. The highest and the most perfect po- 
pularity lies in three requisites ; first, when the 
public loves us ; secondly, when it trusts us ; fH " 
thirdly, when with a certain degree of admira- 
tion, it judges us to be worthy of preferment. 
Now if I am to speak plainly and briefly, almost 
the same means by which those advantages are 
acquired from private persons, acquire them 
from the public. But there is another passage 
by which we may, as it were, glide into the 
affections of the many. 

And first, let me touch upon those three rules 
(as I have already termed them), of benevolence. 
That is chiefly acquired by good deeds ; but next 
to that, benevolence is won by a beneficent in- 
clination, though destitute of means. Thirdly, 
the affections of the public are wonderfully ex- 
cited by the very report and opinion of genero- 
sity, beneficence, justice, honour, and of all 
those virtues that regard politeness and affability 
of manners. For the very honestum and the • 
graceful as it is called, because it charms us by its 
own properties, and touches every human heart 
by its qualities and its beauties, is chiefly re- 
splendent through the medium of those vir- 
tues I have mentioned. We are therefore ra- 
vished, as it were, by nature herself to the love 
of those in whom we think those virtues reside. 






126 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

Now these are the strongest motives of affection, 
some there may be which are slighter. 

As to acquiring the public confidence or 
trust, it may be effected two ways; by being 
supposed to be possessed of wisdom and of 
justice. For we have confidence in those who we 
think understand more than ourselves and who 
we believe has both greater foresight ; and when 
business is actually in hand and matters come to 
trial, know how to pursue the wisest measures 
and act in the most expedient manner, as the 
exigency shall require ; all mankind agreeing 
that this is useful real wisdom. Now the mea- 
sure of our confidence in honest and honourable 
men, that is, men of worth, is, that we have not 
the smallest suspicion of their harbouring a 
thought of cheating or injuring us. We there- 
fore think we act safely and properly in entrust- 
ing them with our persons, our fortunes, and 
our families. 

But of the two virtues, honesty and wisdom, 
the former is the most powerful in winning the 
confidence of mankind. For honesty without 
wisdom, is an inducement sufficient of itself; 
but wisdom without honesty is of no effect ; be- 
cause, when we have no opinion of a man's pro- 
bity, his craft and cunning serve only to make 
us hate and suspect him the more; honesty 
therefore joined to understanding has un- 
bounded power in acquiring confidence ; ho- 






CICERO^ OFFICES. 127 

nesty without understanding can do a great 
deal ; but understanding without honesty can do 
nothing. 

X. But lest any one should be surprised, as 
all philosophers are agreed in one maxim, which 
I myself have often maintained, that the man 
who possesses one of the virtues, is in possession 
of them all, why I here make a distinction that 
implies the possibility of a man's not having 
understanding or wisdom, and honesty at the 
same time, the accuracy which in schools refines 
even upon truth, I answer that is different from 
that accuracy that is required in adapting all our 
reasoning to the understanding of the public. 
Therefore I here make use of the common 
terms of discourse, by calling some men brave, 
some worthy, and others wise. For when I 
treat of a popular opinion, I must make use of 
popular terms, and Panaetius did the same. But 
to return to what I propose. 

Of the three requisites of perfect popularity, 
the third I mentioned was " when the public 
with a certain degree of veneration, judges us 
to be worthy of preferment. " Now every thing 
that they observe to be great and extraordinary, 
is the subject at least of vulgar admiration. But 
with regard to particular persons, they admire 
those things in which they can see any good 
qualities they did not look for. They therefore 
behold with reverence and exalt with a profusion 
of praise, those men in whom they think they 






128 CICERO's OFFICES. 

can perceive any excellency or singularity of 
virtue ; whereas they despise a man when they 
have no opinion of his honesty, none of his 
spirit, and none of his manhood. Now a man 
may be an object of their disesteem, but not of 
their contempt at the same time. For they by 
no means contemn rogues, slanderers, cheats, 
and those who know how to do them an ill turn, 
though they have a very bad opinion of them. 
Therefore as I have already said, they despise 
those who can neither serve themselves nor 
their neighbours, who have no assiduity, no 
industry, and no concern about them. 

Those men are the objects of admiration, who 
are thought to have a pre-eminence of virtue, 
and to be free from every disgrace, as well as 
every failing, to which others are so liable to 
yield. For pleasures, those charming mistresses 
of the soul, warp all its noblest faculties from 
virtue, and most men when ready to enter into 
the furnace of affliction, are unmeasurably terri- 
fied . The considerations of life or death, wealth 
or want, make the deepest impressions upon the 
generality of mankind. But when we see a 
man of a soul so great and so elevated, as to 
despise all those considerations, a man in whom 
the whole man is charmed and impassioned in 
the pursuit of a virtuous and a noble object ; who 
when he sees such a man, does not admire the 
splendour and the beauty of virtue ? 

XI. This sublimity of soul therefore produces 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 129 

the highest admiration ; and above all other con- 
siderations, that honesty from which worthy 
men take their denomination astonishes the 
many. And no wonder that it does ; for no 
man can be honest if he is afraid of death, pain, 
exile, or poverty, or prefers their contraries to 
justice. The man who is incorruptible by 
money excites the wonder of the public, and 
they consider every man whom they see resist 
it as ore purified by the fire. Justice or honesty 
therefore effects all the three means of acquiring 
glory. The love of the public, on account of 
its being a general benefit ; its confidence, for 
the same reason ; and its admiration because it 
neglects and despises those objects with which 
the rest of mankind is so desperately enamoured. 

In my opinion, however, every scheme and 
purpose of life requires the assistance of other 
people. In the first place that you may have 
some intimates to whom you can familiarly un- 
bosom yourself, which is hard for one to do, un- 
less he has an appearance of honesty. For this 
reason, were a man to live ever so lonely or ever 
so retired in the country, people ought to have a 
good opinion of his honesty, for if they have it 
not, they will deem him dishonest, and thus he 
will be left defenceless and exposed to every 
kind of injury and insult. 

Honesty in dealings, is necessary likewise for ^^ ) 
all who buy or sell, who hire or let out, or who 






130 CICERO's OFFICES. 

are engaged in any business whatever. For the 
force of honesty is so great, that without some 
grains of it, even they whose food is cheating 
and villany, could not subsist. For amongst^ 
those who thieve in company, if any one of 
them cheat or rob another he is immediately 
turned out of the gang ; and should the head of 
the gang himself be partial in dividing the 
spoils, the rest would either murder him, or 
abandon him. So that even robbers have their 
laws, which they obey and observe. This im- 
partiality in sharing the booty greatly enriched 
Bardyllis* the Illyrian robber, mentioned by 
Theopompus ; but Viriatusf the Lusitanian, got 
a great deal more by the like fairness. He was 
the same who defeated our armies and our 
generals, but at last was humbled and checked 
by the praetor Caius Laelius, sur-named the wise, 
who thereby rendered the management of the 
war against him an easy task to his successors in 
command. If therefore the influence of justice 
is so forcible as to strengthen and enlarge the 
power of robbers, how much more prevalent 

* Bardyllis."] He was probably the same Bardyllis who was 
conquered by Philip of Macedon. As to his being a robber, 
that very possibly was only a term given him by Theopompus, 
perhaps for asserting the liberties of his country. For we find 
that Pyrrhus, the great king of Epirus, married his daughter 
of Bercenna. 

t Viriatus."] This brave man was once a huntsman, and 
was treacherously murdered by the order of Servilius Caepio. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 131 

must we suppose it to be when men live by the 
regulations and laws of well-tempered govern- 
ment ? 

XII. If I may speak my own opinion, it is 
that not only the Medes, as we are told by Hero- 
dotus, but our ancestors raised to royalty men of 
the best principles, for the benefit of their just 
government. For when the helpless people were 
oppressed by the overgrown in power or riches, 
their recourse was always to some one man who , 
was distinguished by his virtue, who not only 
protected the weakest from oppression, but pur- 
sued an equitable system of government which 
knew no distinction between the highest and 
lowest. Laws were instituted for the same 
reason as kings were : for all mankind have always 
desired to live under laws that know no distinct- 
ion of persons. 

This, and nothing else is justice. When man- 
kind could enjoy it by the equitable wise admi- 
nistration of one worthy man, they were satis- 
fied with that ; but when that was not the case, 
laws were invented which spoke in the same 
terms and with the same tongue to all degrees of 
men. It is therefore undeniable that the men 
who were in the highest esteem for their justice, 
were most commonly chosen into the seat of 
government. But when the same happened 
likewise to be men of wisdom and understanding, 
there was nothing the people did not think them- 

k2 



132 CICERo's OFFICES. 

selves equal to under such an administration. 
Justice, therefore, is by all manner of means to 
be reverenced and practised ; both for its own 
{ sake (for otherwise it would lose its property), 
and for the enlargement of our own dignity and 
popularity. But as it is not sufficient for a man 
to get money, unless he knows how to lay it out 
at interest, so as to supply him not only with the 
necessities, but the elegancies of living ; thus it 
requires address not only to acquire, but to secure 
popularity. 

It was finely said by Socrates that the shortest 
and most direct road to popularity, is " for a 
man to be the same he wants to appear to be." 
People are egregiously mistaken if they think 
they ever can attain to permanent popularity by 
hypocrisy, by mere outside appearances, and 
by disguising not only their language but their 
looks. True popularity takes deep root and 
spreads itself wide ; but the false falls away like 
blossoms from the trees ; for nothing that is false 
can be lasting. I could bring many instances of 
both kinds ; but to cut short, I will confine my- 
self to one family. While there is a trace of 
Roman glory remaining, the memory of Tiberius 
Gracchus the son of Publius will be reverenced: 
but his sons even in life were not approved of 
by good patriots, and after death they are ranked 
amongst those who, when they were slain, were 
treated as they deserved. 



CICERo's OFFICES* 133 

XIII. Let the man therefore who aspires 
after true popularity, perform the duties of 
justice which I have laid down in the former 
book. But though the force of the maxim, that 
" we should be the very men we wish to appear 
to be," carries with it great conviction, yet must 
I lay down some rules for our more readily ap- 
pearing " to be the men we really are." For 
when circumstances concur to give a youth (as 
they do if I mistake not in you Marcus) a figure 
and a rank in the world, either through his 
father's lustre or by some other cause or accident ; 
the eyes of all mankind are turned towards him 
and they make it their business to inquire after 
his actions and morals ; and as if he were set up 
in the strongest point of light, nothing he says, 
nothing he does, can be hid from the public. 

Now they who while children or boys were of 
too mean and obscure a rank to be noticed by 
the public, when they come to be young men, 
ought to raise their views to higher objects and 
pursue them by the most direct means : in which 
they will be the more encouraged to persevere 
because the public is so far from checking, that 
it generally assists the pursuits of early life. 
Military merit then is the chief recommendation 
of young men to public favour. Of this we 
have many examples amongst our ancestors, for 
they were almost always in arms. As to you, 
my son, your youth fell in with the time of a 



134 CICERo's OFFICES. 

civil war, in which one party was too criminal, 
and the other too unsuccessful. But when in 
that war Pompey gave you the command of a 
squadron, you acquitted yourself to the admi- 
ration of that great man and of all his army by 
your address in managing a horse, in darting the 
javelin, and in the performance of all military 
duties. But the honour you thereby acquired 
ceased with the constitution of our country. My 
intention however is not to treat of you singly, 
but to speak in general. Let me therefore pro- 
ceed to what remains. 

As in common occurrences we are more as- 
sisted by the powers of the mind than by those 
of the body, so the measures we carry into exe- 
cution by capacity and reason are more im- 
portant than those we effect by bodily strength. 
Now in this respect, a young man's most early 
recommendation to private favour, is his modesty, 
his obedience to his parents, and his affection 
for his relations. People are likewise very ready 
to be strongly prepossessed in favour of those, 
who after they are somewhat grown up, devote 
themselves to the direction of eminent, wise and 
virtuous patriots. Their frequenting such com- 
pany gives mankind a notion of their one day 
resembling those whom they choose to imitate. 

The public conceived an early opinion of 
Publius Rutilius, for his integrity and knowledge 
in the law, because he frequented the family of 



CICERO's OFFICES. 135 

Publius Mucius. As to Lucius Crassus* when 
he was but a stripling he was indebted to no 
man, but acquired the highest honour from that 
noble, that popular prosecution he undertook ; 
and at an age when even private exercises re- 
commend the future speaker (as was the case 
with Demosthenes), Crassus I say at that age 
adapted with success to public practice in the 
forum those studies that would have done him 
honour had he confined them to private exer- 
cises in his chamber. 

XIV. But as we use two methods of speaking ; (V**^ 
the one proper for conversation, the other for P^~ 
debate ; the latter without doubt is of the greatest 
efficacy to make a man popular ; for that is what 
we properly term eloquence. Yet smoothness 
and politeness in conversation has incredible 
power to win the affections of mankind. We 
have letters from Philip, from Antipates, and 
from Antigonus, three of the wisest menf we 
meet with in history, to their sons Alexander, 

* Crassus.'] This is the great orator our author so much 
praises in his treatise de Oratore. The prosecution here 
mentioned was against C. Carbo, a man of great abilities and 
distinction, who finding matters likely to go against him he 
poisoned himself. 

f Wisest men.'] The first was father to Alexander the 
great , the second was governor of Macedonia during Alex- 
ander's expedition against Persia, and the third was another 
king of Macedonia. 






136 cicero's OFFICES. 

Cassander, and Philip, recommending to them 
to gain the kindness and affections of their 
people by the open honesty of their speeches, 
and to engage their soldiers by a winning, insi- 
nuating, address. But the more animated 
powers of public eloquence often seize a whole 
assembly. For so much are men wrapt up in 
the admiration of an eloquent and a sensible 
speaker, that when they hear him, they are con- 
vinced he has both greater abilities and more 
wisdom than the rest of mankind. But should 
this eloquence be graced with a manner that is 
majestically modest ; nothing can have a more 
wonderful effect, especially should all those pro- 
perties meet in a young man* 

Various are the causes that require the prac- 
tice of eloquence ; many young gentlemen in 
our state have excelled in those of the bar 
and the senate house ; but that of the bar is the 
most productive of glory, as it consists of two 
parts, accusing and defending. Of those the 
latter is preferable in point of honour ; yet the 
other has often been practised with great success. 
Not to repeat the example of Crassus, I just 
now mentioned, Marcus Antonius* when a youth 

* Marcus Antonius.'] This great man likewise is mentioned 
by our author in his bookde Oratore and his other pieces with 
the highest encomiums. He was grandfather to Antony the 
triumvir, and the power of his eloquence is said to have been 
so great, that the soldiers who were sent by Marius and Cinna 



CICERO** OFFICES. 137 

did the same. And even Pubiius Sulpicius* 
displayed his eloquence as a prosecutor, when 
he impeached Caius Norbanus, a seditious and 
worthless citizen. 

But to say the truth, we ought not to make a 
frequent practice of this ; nay, we ought never 
to do it but for our country, as in the cases I 
have mentioned ; or in order to be revenged of 
an injury ,f as the two Luculli did ; or in case of 
patronage, such as mine with regard to the 
Sicilians, or as Julius accused Albucius for the 
Sardians. The abilities of Lucius FusiusJ were 
displayed in the impeachment of Marius Aqui- 
lius. Once therefore is sufficient ; at least I 
would not advise it very often. But if a man 
should be under a necessity of doing it oftener, 

to murder him, for some time suspended their bloody purpose 
before they put him to death. 

* Publius Sulpicius.'] He is another of the interlocutors 
in our author's book de Oratore. 

f Revenged of an injury."] Those words were by the first 
scrupulous transcribers of this work omitted, as clashing with 
the doctrines of Christianity. They were restored by Langius, 
and are undoubtedly part of the text ; for the prosecution 
carried on by the Luculli, was against the augur Servilius, to 
be revenged on him for prosecuting their father. Doctor 
Cockman, neither in his Latin edition nor his translation, 
takes any notice of this omission, which had crept into almost 
all the old printed copies, therefore we may suppose that the 
words omitted by them stand in all the MSS he consulted. 

t Lucius Fusius] He accused Aquilius of corruption. 



138 ^CICERO'S OFFICES. 

it ought to be for the sake of his country, for it 
is by no means reproachful to carry on repeated 
prosecutions against her enemies. But still I 
say there ought to be a mean in all things. He 
who wantonly endangers the lives of others, has 
the nature of a flint rather than a man. Let me 
add, that the epithet of a common impeacher is 
both dangerous to your person, and disgraceful 
to your character, as happened in the case of 
Marcus Brutus,* a man of the highest quality, 
and son to the eminent Civilian of that name. 

We are therefore to lay it down as an inva- 
riable maxim of our duty, never to endanger 
innocence by a capital impeachment, as it is an 
action that must be attended with the most 
heinous guilt. For can any thing be so wicked 
as to prostitute to the persecution and the ruin 
of mankind, that eloquence which nature has 
given us for their safety and preservation. We 
are not however on the other hand, to be so 
scrupulous as not to speak for an offender, if he 
is not notoriously profligate and wicked. The 
people expect this, practice justifies it, and 
good-nature suffers it. The duty of a judge in 
all trials, is to follow truth ; that of a pleader, to 
follow what is most like truth, even though it 
should not be strictly so. I should not, as I am 
now treating of a philosophical subject, have 
ventured to advance this, had I not been war- 

* Brutus.] See de Oratore. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 139 

ranted by the authority of Pansetius, the strictest 
of all the Stoics. But the defence of the im- 
peached makes the pleader appear to the public 
in the fairest and most favourable point of light, 
especially if the client he serves is in danger of 
being trepanned, and of sinking under the 
weight of some great man's power. I have 
often undertaken those kind of pleadings, and 
even when young, I defended in an oration, 
which you know is still extant, Sextus Roscius* 
of Ameria, against all the interest of Sylla, in the 
plenitude of his power. 

XV. Having thus explained those duties of IpLjuz^ 
young men, which are conducive to their acqui- 
ring popularity, I am now to speak of bene- 
ficence or generosity. This is of two kinds ; 
for we serve the indigent, either by our labour /^ 
or by our money ; the latter method is most 
ready, especially to a rich man ; but the former 
is more dignified, is more glorious, and more 
worthy a man of courage and eminence. For 
though there is in both a noble disposition of 
doing good, yet the means of the one is supplied 
from our coffers; those of the others from our 
virtues ; and the generosity that flows at the ex- 
pense of a private fortune, soon dries up its own 
fountain. Thus liberality is undone by libera- 
lity, and the more extensive it has been formerly, 

* Sextus Roscius.'] He was accused of murdering his 
father. See the translation of the Orations, Vol. II. 






140 ClCERo's OFFICES. 

the more contracted it must be in time to come* 
But as to those who expend their labour, that is 
their virtue and their industry in acts of benefi- 
cence and generosity ; in the first place, every 
man they serve is a new accession of assistance 
to enable them to serve others. In the next 
place, the practice of doing good renders them 
more ready, and what we may call more dexterous, 
to diffuse through many, the acts of their bene- 
ficence. It is a fine check that Philip gives to 
his son Alexander in a letter he wrote, reproving 
$ him for endeavouring to win the good- will of 
his subjects by money, " a plague (says he) upon 
that method and those hopes as if corruption 
and bribery could give subjects principles of 
loyalty. Do you mean that the Macedonians 
should consider you not as their king, but their 
servant and purse-bearer." Servant and purse- 
bearer ! very proper epithets truly, because they 
are disgraceful in' a king; and it is with still 
greater propriety, that he terms his son's bounty 
bribery. For a man when corrupted becomes 
more debauched in his morals than before, and 
more sanguine in his expectations of having his 
bribe repeated. 

Philip it is true addresses himself to his son 
particularly, but his words are applicable to all 
men . There can therefore be no room to doubt 
that the beneficence, which consists in employing 
our talents and industry in the service of others, 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 141 

is more honourable, more extensive, and of more 
general utility than the other. There is sometimes, 
however, a necessity for expending money, nor is 
there any absolute rule against bounties of that 
kind. We may often have occasion to assist proper 
and needy objects out of our private fortune ; but 
in this we ought to be cautious and careful ; for 
many there are who have wasted their estates by 
their inconsiderate bounty. Now, can any thing 
be more stupid than to act so as if you wanted to 
put a speedy period to the means of your doing 
what gives you so much pleasure. Let me add, 
that rapaciousness is the consequence of pro- 
fusion ; for when men come to be in want through 
their squandering, they are obliged to put forth 
their hand against the property of others. Thus, 
when to acquire popularity they perform acts of 
bounty, the hatred of those whom they plunder 
weighs down the interest they gain by those upon 
whom they squander. Your purse, therefore, is 
not to be shut against every call of beneficence, 
nor is it to be so open that every man may 
thrust in his hand. Moderation is best, and 
that in a great measure is to be directed by your 
abilities. In short, we ought always to keep a 
homely common proverb in remembrance," that 
bounty has no bottom," for where can there 
be any bounds to it, when they who are used to 
receive, expect to have it repeated ; and others, 
from their examples, have the same expectations. 









. 



142 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

XVI. The bountiful may be divided into two 
classes ; the spendthrifts and the generous. The 
spendthrifts are they who squander their money 
upon entertainments, doles of meat, shows of 
gladiators, the exhibition of plays, or huntings, 
things that leave behind them a very short re- 
membrance, or none at all. 

The generous are they, who out of their own 
private fortune ransom captives out of the power 
of robbers or pirates, who stand engaged for the 
debts of their friends, who assist them in pro- 
viding for their daughters, and contribute either 
to their acquiring or improving a fortune. I am 
therefore surprized that in the book which Theo- 
phrastus* wrote concerning riches,which contains 
so many excellent things, he should reason so 
absurdly on this point. For he is very diffuse 
in his praises of the magnificence and pomp of 
popular exhibitions. And he tells us, that the 
" ability of making such entertainments is answer- 
ing the ends of riches. But in my judgment, 
those acts of generosity, a few of which I have 
mentioned, are far preferable, and more perma- 
nent. Aristotle, upon wiser and weightier prin- 
ciples, reprimands us for not looking upon those 
expenses that are intended to put the people into 
good humour, as something monstrous. " If 
people in a besieged place (says he) should for a 

* Theophrastus.'] He was a famous Greek writer. The 
book here mentioned is lost. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 143 

little water give a great deal of money, we would 
at first be apt to disbelieve the fact ; but our in- 
credulity ceases when we reflect upon the neces- 
sities attending their situation ; yet we are not a 
bit surprized at the mad extravagance and 
boundless expense we see daily ; though it is 
laid out neither to relieve another man's want, 
or to advance our own interests. Besides, the 
very amusement that it gives the many, is but of a 
short inconsiderable duration, and is calculated 
for very chaff of the people, who lose in society 
even the memory of the pleasure." 

He adds very properly, " That such exhibi- 
tions are pleasing only to boys, loose women, 
slaves, and freedmen, who know no better than 
slaves. But that when a man of sense comes to 
consider coolly on such matters, he must con- 
demn them." Mean time I am sensible, that in 
our government, immemorially, and in the best 
of times, the best of men have been called upon 
for magnificent sedileships. Therefore, Publius 
Crassus, who very properly was surnamed ' The 
Rich/ expended vast sums in the exhibitions of 
his aedileship. And soon after, Lucius Crassus, 
who was colleague with Quintus Mucius, the 
least showy of all mankind, went through a most 
magnificent sedileship. Then came Caius Clau- 
dius, the son of Appius ; then the Luculli, Hor- 
tensius, Silanus, and many others ; but all of 
them were outdone by Publius Lentulus, who 



w 



y 



144 CICERo's OFFICES. 

was sedile in my consulship ; and he was imitated 
by Scaurus. The entertainments of my friend 
Pompey, however, in his second consulship, 
were the most magnificent of all . * You already 
have my opinion of all those matters* Mean- 
while, all suspicion of avarice is to be avoided. 

XVII. Mamercus, a man of immense riches* 
was put by the consulship because he declined 
the aedileship. A man therefore must be at 
those expenses, if he is called upon by the peo- 
x pie, and if men of character, without joining in 
the cry, do nothing to discourage it ; but he still 
must proportion them to his abilities, as I did 
when in a public situation. Nay, if a man can 
pursue to advantage some important beneficial 
measure by entertaining the people, it is allowable. 
Orestes,f for instance, got great credit by giving 
a public entertainment in the streets, on pretence 

* It is surprizing with what profusion the magistrates men- 
tioned in this place by our author, entertained the people 
during their aedileships. They brought from all parts of the 
world the finest paintings and sculptures, with which they 
adorned the forum and other public places, during their year. 
Every succeeding sedile racked his invention for some refine- 
ment upon the elegance or magnificence of his predecessor ; 
and the immense expenses it put them to, is reckoned amongst 
the causes of the loss of the Roman liberty. 

f Orestes.] He was consul in the year of Rome 682. It 
was common for the great men of Rome, upon their under- 
taking any expedition, to vow the tithes of all they should 
gain to Hercules, or some other god. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 154 

of paying the tithes of his gains. Neither are 
we to blame Marcus Seius, who, in a time of 
public scarcity, lowered at his own expense the 
price of corn to the people : for, by an expense 
that was neither disgraceful nor, considering that 
he was aedile, extravagant, he got rid of a strong 
and deep rooted prepossession of the public to 
his prejudice. But of all others, my friend 
Milo* lately acquired the greatest glory, by em- 
ploying the gladiators he had bought in the 
service of his country, whose welfare was cen- 
tered in the safety of my single person, by check- 
ing the attempts and the fury of Publius Clodius. 
The occasions of public expense therefore are to 
be prescribed either by necessity or utility. 

But even in those cases it is best to observe a 
mean. It is true, that Lucius Philippus, the son 
of Quintus, a man of the greatest abilities and 
eminence, used to make a merit of his having 
arrived to the highest dignities of the state with- 
out making any present to the public. Cotta 
and Curio said the same. I too am entitled to 
some praise of the same nature. For consider- 
ing that I was exalted to the highest dignity of 
the state, and that too by the suffrages of all my 
constituents, in the first year I was qualified to 
stand (a circumstance that happened to none of 
those I have just now named), the expense of my 
aedileship was very inconsiderable. 

* Milo,'] See the Translation of the Orations, Vol. I. 






146 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

Those expenses however are more justifiable, 
that are laid out upon fortifications, docks, 
harbours, aqueducts, and all those things that 
are serviceable to the public. The people, it is 
true, are better pleased with what is as it were 
paid them in hand ; but those works will be 
more agreeable to posterity. I shall, on account 
of Pompey's memory, be tender in blaming the 
erection of theatres, porticoes, and new temples. 
It is sufficient to say, they are not approved of 
by the most learned authors ; by Panaetius, for 
instance, to whose sentiments, but without 
translating his words, I have been greatly 
beholden in this work. Phalereus Demetrius 
too, reproaches Pericles,* the most leading man 
in Greece, for throwing away so much money 
in that magnificent portico he built for the 
temple of Pallas. But I have been very full 
and particular upon every branch of this subject 
in my Treatise upon Government.t To con- 

* Pericles.'] This great man laid out an incredible sm o f 
money upon erecting a portico to the Acropolis, a kind of an 
old building at Athens, sacred to Pallas. 

t My Treatise upon Government.'] This work is lost, all but 
a few fragments, to the great detriment of learning. 

Notwithstanding the great regard I have for my author's 
good intention in this work, and the applause it has in all ages 
met with, yet it is impossible for a man of any discernment, 
who is ever so little acquainted with the Roman history, not 
to see that he has proposed his own conduct as the great model 
of the moral duties, and that he has artfully thrown a veil 
over it where it was blameable. He here obliquely reproaches 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 147 

elude, the whole system of this kind of bounty, 
is in its own nature blameful ; through con- 
junctures it may be necessary ; and even then, 
it ought to be proportioned to our abilities, and 
directed by discretion. 

XVIII. With regard to the other species of the 
bountiful I proposed to treat of, I mean genero- 
sity, it ought to operate in different manners, 
according to circumstances. 

The circumstances of a man overwhelmed 
with misfortunes, are very different from those 
of a man, who without meeting with any mis- 
fortune, seeks to better his own condition. The 
unfortunate, I mean those who undeservedly are 
so, have the foremost claim to our generosity. 
Not that we are by any manner of means to 
bind ourselves up from assisting those who 
claim our help, not to relieve them in calamity, 
but to further them in prosperity. But in this 
case we ought to be very exact and careful in 
the choice of proper objects. For Ennius 
observes very rightly, that 

" Bounty, when misapplied, becomes a nuisance." 

Now whatever is bestowed upon a man of 
merit and gratitude, is repaid both by the con- 

Pompey and other great men for adorning the city with 
works, that to this day do honour to their country. Because 
he erected no such public buildings, though he was immensely 
lavish, even to the hurting his fortune, upon the houses he 
built on his own private estate. 

l2 



148 CICERO's OFFICES. 

sciousness of doing' a virtuous action, and by the 
other circumstances attending" it. For well 
judging generosity is extremely captivating, and 
it is the more generally applauded, because the 
charity of any one great man is a general refuge. 
We are therefore to take care to extend to as 
many objects as possible our good works, that 
the memory of them descending to their chil- 
dren and posterity, may over-awe them from 
being ungrateful. For the ungrateful are de- 
tested by all mankind, who think that every 
discouragement to liberality is of prejudice to 
themselves; and that the ungrateful man is 
therefore the enemy of the needy. Now there 
is a charity that is serviceable to the public, that 
of ransoming captives, and enriching the poor; 
which was commonly practiced by those of our 
order, as we see more at large by a written 
Oration of Crassus. I therefore think this 
practice of generosity to be far preferable to the 
distribution of largesses to the people. It is the 
result of wisdom, joined to ability ; whereas the 
other belongs to the fawners upon popular 
favour ; to the tickling pleasure-mongers of ^ 
giddy rabble. 

Now as it becomes a man to be free in 
bestowing, he ought for the same reason not to 
be too rigorous in demanding ; and in all his 
contracts, sales, bargains, engagements, and 
loans, to consult the ease and conveniency of his 



CICERO S OFFICES. 149 

neighbours: giving up many things he might 
in strictness insist upon ; and as far as is con- 
sistent with his interest, nay were it my case, 
farther too, avoid law suits. For it is sometimes 
not only generous but profitable, for a man to 
give up a little of his right. We ought, however, 
to have regard to our private estate, for none but 
a profligate will suffer that to slip from him; 
but even in this case, there should not be the 
smallest appearance of sordid ity or avarice. For 
the great art of enjoying money, is to be liberal 
in the eyes of all the world, and yet not hurt 
one's private estate. Theophrastus very pro- 
perly commends hospitality likewise. For in 
my opinion, at least, there is somewhat very 
becoming in illustrious men having their houses 
open to illustrious guests ; and it is one of the 
glories of our state, that strangers in Rome are 
never at a loss for instances of this generosity. 
It is likewise of vast advantage for those who 
seek to rise upon virtuous principles, to have 
by means of their guests, a great character 
amongst foreigners for riches and power. We 
are told by Theophrastus, that Gymon, even 
when he lived at Athens, was hospitable to his 
own tribe of the Laciadae;* for he laid it down 

* Laciada.'] The inhabitants of Attica were divided into 
one hundred and seventy-four tribes, and Cymon, the famous 
Athenian general, who beat the enemy by land and sea in one 
day, was of the tribe of Laciacta. 



150 CICERO* S OFFICES. 

as a rule to furnish them with every thing ; and 
he gave the same orders to his stewards, if any 
of that tribe came to his country-house. 

XIX. The benefits however that we confer, 
not by our purse but our talents, redound to the 
profit of the whole state, as well as to that of the 
particular persons obliged. For to give an 
opinion in a law case, to assist by our advice, 
and to be serviceable in this way to as many as 
possible, is wonderfully effectual towards in- 
creasing a man's power and interest. There- 
fore among the many other excellent con- 
stitutions of our ancestors, the knowledge and 
the interpretation of the civil law, which is so 
well calculated to defend the rights of mankind, 
was always amongst them in the highest 
reputation ; nay, before we fell into those times 
of public confusion, the greatest men of our 
government have ever appropriated the study 
of it to themselves. But now the glory of that 
science is extinct, together with all honour and 
distinctions among Romans, and what makes 
this the more deplorable is, that it happened at 
a time when a man* was alive, who in dignity 
equalling all who had gone before him, was in 
this study by far their superior. This therefore 
is an accomplishment that gives relief to many, 
and is calculated for attaching mankind to our 
interest, by the service it does them. 

* A man,'} Meaning Servius Sulpicius, the famous Civilian. 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 151 

Nearly allied to this, is another more weighty, 

more agreeable, and more ornamented art, I 

mean that of speaking well. For what is more 

excellent than eloquence, with regard to the 

admiration it creates in the hearers, the hope it 

raises in the distressed, or the interest it begets 

in those for whom it is employed. It was 

therefore for this reason, that our ancestors 

assigned to eloquence the most distinguished 

place amongst all the civil accomplishments. 

Extensive, therefore, are the benefits which the 

eloquent man confers, and the dependancies 

which he creates, who readily toils, who 

earnestly labours in the service of many, and 

like our ancestors, all without fee or reward. 

This subject gives me a fair opportunity of 
bewailing the present cessation, not to say the 
extinction of eloquence ; but I am afraid my 
complaints will seem too much to regard myself* 
Let me however observe, that amongst our 
surviving orators, few promise much, fewer 
perform well, yet many undertake boldly. But 
though of all mankind, not very many can 
excel in the knowledge of the law, or the 
practice of speaking ; they may however, by 
their application serve a great many people, by 
soliciting favours for their clients, by recom- 
mending them to judges or magistrates, by 
taking care of their interest, and by soliciting 
the assistance of skilful lawyers, or able speakers. 



152 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

Whoever pursues a practice like this, must ac- 
quire great interest, and the effects of their 
industry will be very diffusive. 

I scarcely need to put such upon their guard 
itra matter that is obvious, that they take great 
heed while they are serving some, that they do 
not disoblige others. Oftentimes, however, they 
are unjust or imprudent in their provocations ; 
if this is done unwillingly, it betrays negligence ; 
if knowingly, presumption. Wherever you 
offend against your intention, you are to make 
jQjb' ' the best apology you can, and to show the party 
that what you did was through necessity or 
inability to act otherwise ; and if any injury is 
done, you are to make amends for it by sub- 
sequent acts of justice and duty. 

XX. But as in assisting mankind we are 
generally directed by either the morals or the 
situation of the party, it is a common saying, 
that drops out upon all those occasions, " that 
in conferring favours we regard not the fortune 
but the merits of a man." The saying I own 
contains a fine sentiment. But after all, show 
me him who does not choose by his services to 
oblige the man of great estate and power, rather 
than the man who with no riches has great 
merit. For wherever we think our services can 
meet with the surest and the quickest return, we 
are always there most ready to oblige. But we 
ought more carefully to examine the nature of 



Cicero's offices. 153 

things. For though the poor man may not 
have the means, yet he may, if he is an honest 
man, have inclination to be grateful. It was 
therefore shrewdly said, say it who will ; 
" Money that is owing is not paid ; and money 
that is paid is not owing ; but the man who 
pays gratitude possesses it, and the man who 
possesses it pays it." 

Besides, when men imagine themselves to be fcuZ** 
rich, honoured, and happy, they are unwilling 
to be put under obligations by services. Nay, 
they think you are indebted to them by their 
deigning to be indebted to you, even for a con- 
siderable service. They are likewise jealous 
that you expect, or are to ask them somewhat in 
return. But it is death to them to be obliged to 
a patron, or to be called clients ; while the poor 
man who receives a favour, in which he knows 
that his poverty was the sole motive for con- 
ferring it, strives to oblige not only those who 
have served him, but those (for many such he 
wants), who he expects are to serve him in time 
to come. And if he chances to discharge any 
part of the obligation, he is so far from mag- 
nifying it by any expression, that he strives to 
lessen the value of the return he makes you. 
There is another thing to be considered, that if 
you defend in a court of justice, a man of 
fortune and great rank, all the acknowledgment 
you are to expect is confined to his single person 



154 CICERo's OFFICES. 

or his children. But if you defend a poor, yet 

IjV* worthy and modest man, all the lower people 

i* } who are not quite profligate (of whom there are 

>}\ great numbers), will consider you as being their 

* V^ ready refuge. I therefore conclude, that an 

obligation is better bestowed upon an honest 

than upon a happy man. 

We ought it is true to endeavour to serve all. 
But should two sorts come into competition, we 
are to follow the example of Themistocles, when 
one asked him whether he chose to give his 
daughter in marriage to a man who had little 
wealth but great merit ; or a man who had great 
wealth and little merit ? For my part, said he, 
I prefer the man without the money, to the 
" money without the man " but our morals are 
corrupted and debauched by the court we pay 
to riches. And yet what concern can we have 
In this or that, or a third man's having an over- 
grown estate ? It is very well (and that is not 
always the case) that it is of service to the owner. 
But granting it is, it may make him a more con- 
siderable, but it cannot make him a more honest 
man. But supposing one to be a man both of 
fortune and merit, I am far from thinking that 
his riches should be a hindrance to his being 
served, I only would not have them to be the 
chief inducement ; for we are not to examine 
into a man's riches, but into his morals. The 
last rule I am to give concerning serving others, 



CICERO's OFFICES. 155 

is that we take care that we contend for nothing 
that is inconsistent with justice, nothing that 
injures another party. For justice is the basis of 
lasting fame and reputation, and without it no- 
thing can be glorious. 

XXI. Having treated of those services that 
regard particulars ; I am now to explain those 
that relate to the generality of mankind, and to 
our country. Of these, some regard the com- 
munity, others (and those are the most agreeable) 
the individuals composing that community. 
Could we reconcile the interests of both, it 
would be so much the better ; but let us at least 
serve the individuals ; yet in a manner they may 
be profitable, or at least not detrimental to the 
public. The large distribution of corn made 
by Caius Gracchus exhausted the treasury ; but 
the moderate one of Marcus Octavius* relieved 
the people without being burdensome to the 
state. It was therefore salutary both to indivi- 
duals and to the community. *• 

Now it ought to be a preferable consideration ' ?^ 

with him who has a direction in the state, that T^ 
every man's right be secure, and that no public 
act encroach upon private property. For the 
Agrarian lawj- that Philippus when tribune 

• Marcus Octavius.'] He was joint tribune of the people 
with Tiberius Gracchus, and by him deprived of that office for 
opposing his schemes. 

t Agrarian law.'] Those laws for a distribution of lands 



156 CICERo's OFFICES. 

brought in, was a destructive measure ; he easily 
suffered it however to be over-ruled, and thereby 
discovered the greatest moderation . But amongst 
many popular actions he had one wicked speech : 
" That there were not in Rome two thousand 
men who had property." This remarkable 
speech pointed directly to a levelling principle, 
the greatest curse that can befal a government. 
For the securing every man's property to himself 
is a chief reason why governments and states 
were formed. Nature, it is true, directed man- 
kind to associate together, but it was in order to 
secure their separate properties that they 
sheltered themselves in cities. 

Care should likewise be taken to avoid bur- 
dening the people with taxes, as they often 
were in the days of our ancestors, when the 
public treasure was low, or when wars were in- 
cessant. And to effect this requires great fore- 
sight. But should any government be under a 
necessity of this kind, for I choose not to forbode 
any misfortune to my own country, nor do I speak 
of our own state, but of government in general. 
Care should be taken to make the public sen- 
sible that the measure is indispensably necessary 
for their safety. All, therefore, who have the 
direction of government ought to provide plenty 
of every thing that is necessary for the public 

created great disturbances at Rome, between men who had 
property and those who had none. , 






CICERO^ OFFICES. 157 



service. In what manner or quantity those 
things are to be provided I need not to point out; 
for all that is obvious ; I only have thought 
proper to mention the head. 

Now in the management of all public business, 
one main consideration is to remove from oneself 
even the slightest suspicion of avarice. " I wish 
(said Caius Pontius the general of the Samnites), 
that fate had reserved me to be born at the time 
when the Romans shall begin to take bribes, I 
should then have rendered their empire of no 
long duration." He must however have waited 
for many generations ;* for that evil is but of 
late date in our country. I am therefore very 
well pleased that Pontius, as he was s6 vigorous 
a person, did not live in our days. It is not a 
hundred and ten years since Lucius Piso carried 
through the law against corruption'; there being 
no such law before. But many such laws, and 
each more severe than the other, have been made 
since that time. So many have been impeached, 
so many condemned, such a war was raised in 
Italy through the fear of the laws, and so much 
in disregard to all laws and all forms of justice 
have we stript and plundered our allies, that we 

* Many generations.'] The Pontius here spoken of was 
general of the Samnites when the Romans underwent the 
famous disgrace of the Furca Caudince. I have translated the 
word S&cula, generations j for only 260 years fell between the 
time of Pontius and our author's consulship. 



158 CICERO's OFFICES. 

subsist through the weakness of others, and not 
by our own virtue. 

XXII. Pansetius praises Africanus for being 
incorruptible ; and well did he deserve the en- 
comiums he gives him. But he had greater 
good qualities ; for integrity was not only a merit 
of his but of the times. Paulus was master of 
all the immense treasures of Macedonia ; which 
brought such riches into the public treasury, that 
the booty made by that one commander, put an 
end to imposts. And yet he brought into his 
family nothing but the eternal glory of his name. 
Africanus imitated his father, and was not a 
farthing the richer for having destroyed Carthage. 
But why multiply instances ? Was Lucius Mum- 
mius ; who was his colleague in the censorship, 
the richer for having razed to the foundation the 
richest of all cities.* He chose to adorn Italy, 
rather than his own house ; and in my opinion 
his house was adorned by the ornaments of Italy. 

To return from this digression; no vice is 
more detestable than avarice, especially in those 
who sit at the helm of government. For it is 
not only base, but wicked and execrable for a 
man to make a job of public property. The 
Oracle therefore that was uttered by the Pythian 
Apollo, that " Sparta would be destroyed only 
by her avarice," was applicable not only to the 
Spartans, but to all wealthy states. Whereas 

* Richest of all cities.'] Meaning Corinth. 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 159 

the heads of a government can recommend them- 
selves to the people by no more effectual means 
than by integrity and uprightness. 

As to the hunters after popular applause who 
either attempt levelling measures, by turning 
lawful proprietors out of their possessions, or by 
pushing on acts of insolvency in favour of 
debtors ; such men weaken the very funda- 
mentals of government. They destroy, in the 
first place, all unanimity by giving to some what 
they take from others ; and in the next place all 
equity, by not suffering every man to have his 
own. For as I said before, the great advantage 
arising to men from their living in a community 
or city, is by every man enjoying his own pro- 
perty freely and securely. 

Nay, the patrons of public corruption, that 
bane of government, are far from gaining so 
great an interest by it as they imagine. The 
man who is deprived of his property becomes an 
enemy. He to whom it is given pretends that 
he did not desire to have it ; and (especially in 
the case of an insolvent act) he dissembles his 
joy, lest it should appear that he must without it 
have been a bankrupt. As to the man who 
receives the wrong, he not only remembers it, 
but carries the pain it gives him always about 
him. Nay granting that the number of those 
who suffer unjustly is not so great as thai of those 
who are befriended dishonestly by such measures, 



160 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

the latter are not therefore the stronger ; for we 
are to judge of both not of their numbers but 
their weight. Now where is the equity, that an 
estate which for many years, nay ages, has been 
in one man's family, should go to a man who 
has none ; and that the man who had it should 
lose it? 

XXIII. It was for injustice of this nature that 
the Lacedaemonians* expelled Lysander their 
Ephorus, and put to death Agis their king, a 
thing that never before had happened in that 
state ; and the disorders that immediately suc- 
ceeded upon that period were so great, as to give 
rise to tyrants and destruction to their nobility, 
till that constitution that was so excellently well 
modelled was ruined. Nor was it ruined alone, 
for the mischief diffused itself more widely, and 
the contagion that broke out in Lacedaemon de- 
stroyed the rest of Greece. But what am I say- 
ing ; did not our countrymen, the Gracchi, sons 
of the excellent T Gracchus, and the grandsons 
of Africanus, perish in the same levelling con- 
troversies ? 

Aratusf the Sicyonian has a just title to glory ; 

* Lacedcemonians.] Their Ephori were officers of govern- 
ment, who were a kind of check upon their kings. The Agis 
here mentioned was murdered for endeavouring to revive some 
obsolete laws of Lycurgus, that tended to levelling property 
in the state. See his life of Plutarch. 

f Aratus.'] His life is likewise written by Plutarch, and 
though his conduct in the instance mentioned by our author was 



CICERo's OFFICES. 161 

who, when his country for fifty years had been 
possessed by tyrants, came from Argos to Sicyon, 
which city he made himself master of by enter- 
ing it in the night time, after surprising and 
killing the tyrant Nicocles. He recalled from 
exile six hundred men of the greatest property 
in all the state ; and by this adventure he deli- 
vered his countrymen from slavery. But ob- 
serving insurmountable difficulties with regard 
to properties and possessions, he thought it highly 
unjust that those he had restored should be in 
want when others had their estates ; nor did he 
think it quite fair to displace the present pro- 
prietors after fifty years possession; because 
during that time, a great deal of property must 
have passed from hand to hand without any 
fraud, by heritages, by purchases, and by dow- 
ries. Upon the whole he thought it imprudent 
to dispossess the one, and iniquitous not to 
satisfy the others, whose properties had been 
usurped . 

Seeing that the matter could only be made up 
by money, he declared that he intended to go to 
Alexandria, and ordered every thing to stand 
just as it was till his return. He then posted 
away to his guest Ptolemy, the second kingwho 
reigned at Alexandria after it was built ; and 

truly wise and virtuous, yet I own I should have been glad our 
author would have told us how Aratus ought to have behaved, 
had he not had the purse of his good friend Ptolemy to serve 
him at this pinch. 

M 



>"' 



162 CICERo's OFFICES. 

imparted to him his intention of delivering his 
country, and the scheme he was pursuing : upon 
which that wealthy king readily gave this great 
patriot so large a sum as answered his purpose. 
Returning with this money to Sicyon, he ap- 
pointed fifteen commissioners with himself to 
try all matters of property between those who 
possessed the estates of others, and those who 
had lost their own, and by the means of an 
inquest into the value of the estates, he per- 
suaded some to quit possession in consider- 
ation of money, while others by his persuasion 
thought it more convenient to take ready 
money, than to re-enter into possession of their 
own. By this management he preserved una- 
nimity in the state, and all parties went away 
satisfied. 

What a glorious patriot was this ! A patriot 
whose birth would have done credit even to the 
Roman republic ; his management was an equi- 
table precedent for treating with fellow-citizens, 
instead of proclaiming a sale in the forum (as has 
twice been the case in my time), and selling the 
properties of citizens by the voice of a public 
crier. But that illustrious Greek, like a wise 
and virtuous patriot as he was, consulted the 
good of the whole ; for the highest character, 
the truest wisdom of a patriot, is to preserve the 
properties of his fellow-citizens, and to bind all 
within one undistinguishing rule of equity. 



CICERO'S OFFICES. J63 

There is a fellow who lives rent-free upon my 
estate. The reason ? Am I to buy, build, in- 
spect, and expend, while you in spite of me en- 
joy all the benefit ? Is not this the case, when 
this man is deprived of a property that is his, 
and that man is presented with an estate that is 
another's ? For what meaning is there in an act 
of insolvency, but that you may buy an estate 
with my money. You are to have the estate, and 
I am to lose my money. 

XXIV. Such a plan of government therefore 
ought to be laid down, as that no private debts 
should be prejudicial to the state. Many are the 
ways of effecting this, and should there be 
already any excesses of that kind, the rich are 
not to lose their own, nor are the debtors to en- ' 
gross another's property. Of all the barriers of 
government, the strongest is public credit, which 
must be destroyed, unless the payment of debts 
is made one of its indispensable rules. Never 
was a more violent struggle for a general act of 
insolvency, than what happened when I was 
consul. The measure was pursued by armies 
and encampments of men of all ranks and orders, 
but so vigorous was my resistance, that this detest- 
able principle was abolished out of the con- 
stitution. Never was there so much money 
owing, and never was it more faithfully or more 
readily paid: for when all the means of cheating 
were taken away, the necessity of paying followed. 

m2 



ftUu 









164 CICERO^ OFFICES* 

But our late master,* who was mastered at 
that time, wantonly carried into execution his 
projects when he was under no necessity of 
doing it, for such was his propensity to wick- 
edness, that he was wicked for the sake of 
wickedness. 

True patriots, therefore, while they are at the 
head of government, will detest all that kind of 
bounty which robs one to enrich another ; and 
their chief care will be that the law and the 
courts of justice preserve every man in quiet 
possession of his own property ; that thus the 
mealier sort may through weakness suffer no 
injustice, nor the richer be prejudiced by public 
clamour, either in asserting or recovering what 
is their own. In other respects let them employ 
all measures they can, either in war or peace, to 
enlarge the empire, the possessions, and the 
revenues of their country. Such are the duties 
of great men ; such were the duties practised 
by our ancestors. Those are the duties which 
will bring public favour and popularity to the 
persons, and peace and prosperity to the country, 
of all who practise them. 

;'* Late master. 1 Meaning Julius Caesar, Orig. nunc Victor, 
turn quidem victus. In this and many other passages of this 
work relating to that great man, I think our author does no 
great honour either to his own gratitude, or judgment, or 
steadiness. The very reflection thrown out here is not 
only rancorous and indecent, but unjust and wicked, nay, 
cowardly. 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 165 

But with regard to rules of utility, Anti pater 
of Tyre,* a Stoic who lately died at Athens, 
thinks that Panaetius has omitted two, the care 
of our person and of our purse: I think that 
great philosopher omitted them, because they 
were easy and obvious : but useful they certainly 
are. Now health is preserved by our knowing 
the constitutions of our own bodies, and by 
observing what things are prejudicial or ser- 
viceable to our health, by our being temperate 
in food and raiment, so as that they may preserve 
our persons, by our avoiding pleasures ; and 
lastly, by the skill of those who possess the art 
of medicine. 

As to our private estate, it ought to be acquired 
by means that have nothing dishonest in them : 
it ought to be preserved by industry and econo- 
my, and enlarged by the same virtues. Xeno- 
phon, the disciple of Socrates, has treated those 
matters with great propriety in his book called 
and entitled (Economics, which when I was about 
the age you are now, I translated from Greek into 
Latin .f 

XXV. But the comparison of things useful, 
as that is the fourth head which has been omitted 
by Panaetius, is often necessary. For bodily 

* Antipater of Tyre.] Antipater was the name of several 
Stoic philosophers j he, mentioned here, was the friend, com- 
panion, and tutor of Cato of Utica. 

t The translation here mentioned is lost. 



166 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

used to be compared with external advantages ; 
and external with bodily advantages amongst 
themselves, and the same with regard to external 
advantages. External advantages are compared 
with bodily, in this manner : you prefer good 
health to much riches. Bodily are compared 
with external advantages: thus it is better to 
possess riches than the most vigorous consti- 
tution of the body. Our bodily advantages 
are thus compared with one another: good 
health is preferable to pleasure, and strength to 
swiftness. Externals thus : glory is preferable 
to riches, and an estate in town to one in the 
country. 

A saying of the elder Cato falls under this 
head of comparison. Being asked what is the 
first method for improving a private estate ; 
his answer was, " By feeding cattle very well." 
What is the second ? " By feeding them pretty 
well." What the third ? " By feeding them, 
though but poorly." What the fourth ? " To 
labour the ground." Being asked what he 
thought of a man who took usury for his money ? 
His answer was, " What do you think of a man 
who murders another ?" From this and many 
other instances, it is plain that comparisons of 
advantages are usually made ; and that I was in 
the right to add this as the fourth head for finding 
out our duty. 

But the whole of this subject, and whatever 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 167 

relates to gaining, laying out, or lending money, 
is much more accurately discussed by certain men 
of worth who ply near the Exchange* than it 
can be in all the schools of the philosophers on 
earth. It is proper however we be acquainted 
with those matters for they relate to utility, 
which is the subject of this book. Now to 
proceed. 

* Exchange.'] Orig. Ad Medium Janum sedentibus. The 
Medius Janus answers to our exchange, and was a place of 
Rome resorted to by all brokers and monied men for laying 
their money out to advantage. 



CICERO DE OFFICIIS; 

HIS TREATISE 

CONCERNING 

THE MORAL DUTIES OF MANKIND. 



BOOK III. 

Marcus, my Son, 

I. The elder Cato who was almost of the 
same age with Publius Scipio, the first who was 
surnamed Africarms, has told us that that great 
man was wont to say he "never was less idle* than 

* Never less idle.~\ Nunquam se minus otiosum esse quam 
otiosum, nee minus solus quam cum solus esset. Patereulus, 
perhaps of all writers either ancient or modern, has given 
us the most finished character of this great man, and I shall 
here both transcribe it as being a master-piece of intellectual 
painting. Scipio, says he, tarn elegans liberalium Studiorum, 
omnisque Doctrince, # Auctor, % Admirator, fuit, ut Polibium 
Paneetiumque, prcecellentes ingenio Viros, domi Militueque secum 
habuerit. Nee vero quisquam, hoc Scipione, elegantius, intervalla 
Negotiorum, otio dispunxit, semperque aut Belli, aut Pacis, ser~ 
viit, Artibus ; semper inter Arma ac Studia versatus, aut Corpus 
PericuUs, aut Animum Disciplinis, exercuit. Though the 
translating a sentence from this inimitable author, to do him 
justice, costs more than translating whole chapters and pages 
from almost any other, yet I shall attempt it on this occasion. 

t( Scipio so elegantly both practised and admired the whole 
circle of the liberal art and sciences, that Polibius and Panae- 



170 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

when he had nothing to do ;" and " that he 
never was less alone when he was by himself." 
This was a truly noble saying, and worthy a 
great and a wise man ; as it intimated, that even 
when he had nothing to do he thought of busi- 
ness, and, when alone, he conversed with him- 
self: so that in fact he never was idle, and he 
did not even want the company of any other 
person to keep him from loneliness. Leisure, 
therefore, and loneliness, which generally make 
other men listless, made him all alive. I wish 
I had reason for saying the same thing of my- 
self. But if I cannot by imitation attain to that 
excellency of spirit ; yet to endeavour it is cer- 
tainly in my power. For I am enjoying my 
leisure, being debarred by execrable force and 
violence from acting in affairs of state, or follow- 
ing the business of the bar. Having, therefore, 
left the city, while I rove from place to place in 
the country, I am often by myself. 

But neither does this leisure resemble that of 
Africanus, nor is my loneliness to be compared 
with his. For in the intervals of his glorious 
services to his country, he sometimes indulged 

this, men eminent for genius, were his companions both at 
home and abroad. Never did man make more elegant stops 
than this Scipio did in the leisure of life and the pauses of bu- 
siness j for he made them ever subservient to the arts either 
of peaee or war. Ever habituated to arms or to learning, he 
was always employing his body in dangers, or his mind in 
study." 



CICERo's OFFICES. 171 

a leisure hour and retired to solitude, as to a JjjajJ 
harbour, to shelter him from crowds and com- 
pany. But my leisure proceeds from the want 
of employment, and not from the love of retire- 
ment. For now that the senate is dissolved and 
the courts of justice abolished, what business 
either in the state or the forum can I follow 
with dignity ? 

Thus I, who in the former part of my life was 
followed by crowds, and was dear to my country, 
now live in solitude, and now hide myself as 
much as I can that I may avoid those villains 
who infest every place. But I have been told by 
men of learning, that of all evils we ought not 
only to choose the least, but that, even out of that 
least, we ought to pick all the good, if there is 
any in it. Thus I make the best use of my ease 
(not such an ease, indeed, as the man ought to 
enjoy who brought ease to his country), nor do 
I suffer myself to be listless amidst my loneli- 
ness, which with me is the effect, not of choice, 
but necessity. 

But even in my opinion, African us, in this res- 
pect had greater merit than I ; for there is ex- 
tant in writing no monument of his genius, no 
proofs of his leisure, no productions of his lonely 
hours. From thence we may conclude that the 
revolving and investigating the subjects which 
occurred to his thoughts, gave him full business 
and employment. But as I have not such a 



172 CICERO^ OFFICES. 

strength of genius as to live in loneliness upon 
silent meditation only, I have thus employed 
myself in committing to paper all the subjects of 
my study and concern. Thus, I have written 
more in a short time since the constitution has 
been overturned, than I did for many years while 
it existed. 

Now no part of philosophy, my dear Marcus, 
is barren and waste, for all is rich and fruitful ; 
but no spot of it is more fertile or plentiful than 
that which treats of the duties which furnish the 
rules for our living uniformly and creditably. 
Therefore, though I dare to say you daily hear 
and learn those rules fromCratippus, the greatest 
philosopher of this age, yet I think it is for your 
edification, that such precepts should be for 
ever sounding in your ears, and, were it pos- 
sible, that you should hear nothing else. 

Though the same thing is expedient for every 
man who wishes to enter into life with credit, 
yet, I believe, for none more than yourself. 
Some perhaps* expect that you will succeed me 

* Some perhaps.] I cannot help thinking, while I am trans- 
lating this work, that in some passages we see the distress 
Cicero was in when he wrote it, by his inattention to the 
style, and sometimes a repetition of sentiment. But that is 
far from being the case in this introduction, which is both 
noble and elegant. There is in this passage an inimitable 
conciseness of expression, which I have endeavoured, but I 
am afraid in vain, to imitate. Sustines enim non parvam ex- 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 173 

in glory, many in application, and more indig- 
nities. You have, besides, loaded yourself with 
the weighty care of attending Cratippus, and at 
Athens too, that great mart of all the fine arts ; 
and to return empty from thence would be 
shameful to yourself and digraceful to the repu- 
tation both of the city and the master. Put 
forth, therefore, every power of mind, exert 
every effort of labour (if you take study to be 
rather labour than pleasure) to succeed in what 
you are about ; and endeavour, as I have taken 
care you should be supplied with every thing, 
that you appear not wanting to yourself. But of 
this enough ; for often and much have I wrote to 
instruct and advise you. I return to the remain- 
ing part of my proposed division. 

II. Now Pansetius, who doubtless is the most 
accurate that has treated of the duties of man, 
and whom I have chiefly with some emendation 
followed, laid down three heads of consideration .yjjfc®^ 
upon duty. One when a man doubted whether 
what he was about was virtuous or disgraceful : lUtffif"' 
the second, whether it was profitable or impro- 
fi table : the third, if there was any jarring be- 
tween virtue and utility, how we are to make the 
most proper distinctions. His three first books 
treat of the two first kinds ; and he promised to 
treat of the third, but never did. This to me is 
the more surprising as we are told by his dis- 

pectationem imitanda industries nostrce, magnam honorum, non- 
nullam fortasse nominis. 



174 CICERO's OFFICES. 

ciple Possidonius, that Panaetius lived thirty 
years after he had published those books ; and 
I am further surprised, that Possidonius has in 
some loose notes so cursorily treated of this sub- 
ject which he owns to be the most important in 
all philosophy. 

I differ, however, with those who think that 
Panaetius omitted this subject, not through over- 
sight but design, and that he never intended to 
discuss it, because, say they, what is profitable 
never can jar with what is virtuous. Whether 
this division, which is the third with Panaetius, 
ought to be omitted or not is matter of doubt ; 
but there can be none, that Panaetius laid it 
down and left it untouched. For when an au- 
thor divides his subject into three parts, and 
discusses two of them, it is plain the third re- 
mains to be handled. Nay, he himself, in the 
latter part of his third book, tells us, that he was 
still to treat of that division. 

Add to this the unquestionable evidence of 
Possidonius, who, in one of his letters tells us, 
that Publius Rutilius Rufus, who was a hearer 
of Panaetius, used to say, that as no painter ever 
attempted to finish that part of the Venus of 
Coos,* which Apelles had but just touched, be- 

* Venus of Coos. ,] Apelles painted two figures of Venus. 
The latter which is mentioned here, he left imperfect at his 
death. Meanwhile, we find by the testimony of all antiquity 
that in Greece this great master and his contemporaries carried 



CICERo's OFFICES. 175 

cause the beauty of her face made them despair 
of making the rest of her person answerable ; 
thus no one had presumed to attempt what Pa- 
naetius had omitted or left unfinished, because 
the parts he has finished are executed by so 
masterly a hand. 

III. There can, therefore, be no doubt with 
regard to the intention of Panaetius, but some 
may perhaps arise about the propriety of the 
third head he laid down, for enabling us to 
judge of our duty. For whether, with the 
Stoics, we account the honestum to be the sole 
good ; or with you Peripatetics, that it is so 
much the highest good, that all that can be uj^JfouuP- 
brought to counter-balance it is next to nothing, ,-.. 
yet there can be no doubt that virtue and profit 
never can come in competition with one 
another. We therefore are told, that Socrates 
used to mention with detestation the men who 
first disputed into a distinction those two prin- 
ciples which nature has closely united. Nay, 
the Stoics go so far as to affirm, that whatever 
is virtuous is profitable, and that nothing can 
be profitable but what is virtuous. 

painting as high as sculpture was. Now that the Greeks 
have not been outdone or perhaps equalled in the latter, is 
certain from the many monuments that remain of their sculp- 
ture, but we have none by which we can judge of their 
painting. The remains of painting at Rome reach, some of 
them, so high as the Augustan age, but they are by no means 
equal to the great idea we conceive of the performances of an 
Apelles, a Protogenes, or a Zeuxis. 



fi 



176 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

Now, if Pansetius had been one of those who, 
estimating every thing according to the pleasure 
or the privation of pain that attends it, think 
virtue desirable, as being the efficient of what 
is profitable ; he might very properly say, that 
profit sometimes comes into competition with 
virtue ; but as he held the honestum to be the 
only good, and as to those considerations that 
oppose it with some show of profit or utility, 
that life was neither rendered better by their 
accession nor worse by their departure; there 
seems to be some inconsistency in his making 
it any subject of deliberation, whether the seem- 
ingly profitable may come in competition with 
v the honestum ? 
^y\^y For I am of opinion, the meaning of our 
living conformably to nature, which the Stoics 
maintained to be the highest good, was, that we 
should always live agreeably to virtue ; and that 
we should make use of all the other circum- 
stances that nature approves of, but so as that 
they may not clash with virtue. This being the 
case, some people think that Pansetius has im- 
properly introduced the competition he here 
speaks of, and that it is a division that does not 
admit of any rules. Now the honestum, pro- 
perly and truly so called, remains only with the 
completely wise, and is inseparable from virtue ; 
but where wisdom is not perfect the perfect ho- 
nestum cannot reside, though the resemblance 
of it may. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 177 

For all the duties that are the subject of this 
treatise, are by the Stoics called middle or sub- 
ordinate duties, and are common to all, and ex- 
tensive and practicable by many through the 
force of understanding and the progress of study. 
But the duty which they term right or direct is j 
perfect and finished, and, to speak in their own 
terms, complete in all respects ; nor can it fall 
to the lot of any but a man absolutely wise. 

Now all actions that give proofs of the subor- 
dinate duties being observed, seem to be com- 
pletely perfect ; because people in general have 
no notion how far they fall short of perfection ; 
according to the measure of their understanding, 
they think that nothing is wanting. As we see 
it often happens that people who are no judges 
are pleased with poems, pictures, and the like, 
and praise them for properties they are void of ; 
because I suppose there may be in them some 
degree of merit that takes with the unskilful 
who are unable to point out the defects of the 
piece, but when they are belter informed by 
men of more knowledge they readily give up 
their opinion, 

IV. The duties, therefore, that we treat of in bf^ 
these pages, are but virtues that are subordinate u*M 
to right duty : nor are they the peculiar proper- 
ties of the wise alone, but are in common to all 
the race of man. They therefore touch all who 
have a disposition for virtue. But when the 

N 



178 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

Decii or the two Scipiones are mentioned as 
brave men, or when an Astides or a Fabricius 
is termed " The just ;" we are not to expect 
from the former sifch a pattern of courage, or 
from the latter of justice, as we look for in a 
completely wise man. For none of them are 
supposed to be so wise as to come up to what we 
understand by a " wise man." Even they, such 
as Marcus Cato and Caius Laelius, who are re* 
puted and said to be wise, were not wise in the 
strict sense of the word ; nay, not all the seven 
wise men together were ; but through a full as- 
semblage of the subordinate duties, they wore a 
kind of semblance and show of perfect wisdom. 

As, therefore, we are not to put the true ho- 
nestum in competition with any measure of the 
profitable or beneficial, neither is the supposed 
honestum, I mean that which is practised by 
men who wish to appear to be men of virtue, 
ever to be put in comparison with private gain. 
And we ought as much to preserve and cherish 
that measure of the honestum which falls within 
our conception, as the wise are supposed to do 
that which is really and perfectly the honestum. 
For otherwise we never can persevere in our 
progress, if we have made any, towards virtue. 
But all this is applicable only to those who are 
accounted men of virtue by practising the moral 
duties. 

Men who weigh every thing in the scale of 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 179 

profit or conveniency, and will not suffer the 
balance to be cast by virtue, such men use to 
deliberate about the preference of the honestum 
to the profitable ; but good men never use to do 
that. I am therefore of opinion when Panae- 
tius said it was the custom of some men to hesi- 
tate about this competition, that he meant, ac- 
cording to the letter of his own expression, it T(J^J& 
was indeed their custom, but not their duty. 
For it is not only disgraceful to prefer a seeming 
profit to virtue, but even to suffer them to come 
into competition, and to hesitate about the pre- 
ference. Then what is it that we use to doubt 
and deliberate about ? In my opinion, if a doubt 
arises, it is concerning the nature of the thing 
that is the subject of our deliberation. 

For it often happens through circumstances, 
that what is generally held to be dishonest, is 
not really dishonest. Let me give one instance 
that reaches to a variety of cases. Can any 
thing be more wicked than to kill a man, nay, 
an intimate friend ? But are we to load the 
man with guilt, who kills a tyrant, even though 
he should happen to be an intimate friend ? 
The people of Rome, at least, are not of that 
mind ; for they esteem it of all glorious actions, 
the most lovely. In this case, you may say, 
the benefit conquered the honesty of the action. 
By no means; but the honesty of it resulted 
from its benefit. Therefore, that we may form 

n2 



180 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

an unerring judgment ; if, what we call bene- 
ficial, at any time should clash with what we 
conceive to be honest, we are to lay down a 
certain criterion for the rule of the estimate we 
j/ / make, and then we never can depart from our 
duty. 



(VF 



Now, this criterion, or rule of judging, is 
principally calculated for the doctrine of the 
Stoics, which I have chiefly followed in these 
pages ; because, though the ancient Academics, 
and your sect of the Peripatetics (who were 
formerly the same with the Academics) pre- 
ferred what is honest to what is profitable ; yet, 
it is more nobly sentimental to maintain, that 
whatever is virtuous, is, at the same time, pro- 
fitable ; and that nothing can be profitable, that 
is not virtuous ; this is, I say, a nobler doctrine 
than that of those who maintain, that there is 
a kind of virtue that is not profitable, or a kind 
of profit that is not virtuous. But our academy 
gives us a great latitude, by leaving us at liberty 
to defend whatever carries with it the greatest 
face of probability. But to return to our cri- 
terion. 

V. To rob a man of any thing, or to accom- 
modate yourself by incommoding him, is more 
contrary to nature, than death, poverty, pain, 
or any other misfortune, that can happen either 
to our person or our external circumstances. 
For, in the first place, it ruins all intercourse 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 181 

and society amongst men. Because, should we ^^^^ 
once indulge ourselves, in robbing or injuring j * 
another for our particular profit, the necessary ' 
consequence is, the dissolution of that society •/ 
amongst men, which is chiefly agreeable to A 
nature. 

Let us suppose, that every one of our mem- 
bers is endowed with a property of conscious- 
ness, and persuades itself, that it would be more 
vigorous, if it could draw to itself the health of 
its neighbouring member. The result would 
necessarily be the consumption and death of the 
whole body. In like manner, was every man 
to engross to himself the properties of others, 
and to rob his neighbour of all he could for 
his own benefit, the necessary consequence 
would be, the destruction of intercourse and 
society amongst men. For as nature does not 
oppose giving ourselves the preference to any 
other, or our endeavouring to acquire whatever 
can make our own life more happy, she is 
absolutely against enlarging our own abilities, 
riches, or power, by robbing our neighbour. 

Nor is this provision made only by nature, 
that is, by the law of nations, but likewise by 
the municipal laws, that regulate the govern- 
ment of all states ; and which say, that we are 
not to injure another that we may benefit 
ourselves. This is the design, this is the mean- 
ing of laws ; to preserve the connexions of 



182 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

fellow-citizens, and whoever breaks into them 
is punished with death, with exile, imprison- 
ment, or loss of property. Now, the properties 
of nature, which is a law both divine and hu- 
man, are much more positive in this command ; 
and whoever follows them (as all will do, who 
wish to live agreeable to nature), he never can 
fall into the crimes of coveting what is another's, 
or securing to himself what he robs from another. 

To proceed. Sublimity and greatness of soul, 
politeness, honesty, and generosity, are much 
more agreeable to nature, than pleasure, than 
life, than riches : the neglect or contempt of 
which, when put in competition with the public 
good, is the character of a great and an elevated 
soul. But to rob another for your own ad- 
vantage, is more contrary to nature than death, 
than pain, or any of their concomitants. 

In the like manner, it is more agreeable to 
nature,* to undertake the greatest toils and 

* Nature. ~\ An Italian, one Caelius Calcagninus, a man of 
great reputation for learning and genius, who lived in the 
sixteenth century, took it into his head to treat this woTk of 
Cicero with great freedom and some indecency, by writing 
twenty-five, what he calls disquisitions, arraigning him of 
inconsistency, both with himself and other authors whom he 
followed 5 and the doctrine of the passage before us, gives rise 
to one of his disquisitions: " What Cicero writes on this 
head (says he) is directly contrary, to what Aristotle has 
advanced 5 who says, that virtue is perpetually at war with 
our natural affections, and has for its objects the part of us 



CICERO^ OFFICES. 183 

troubles, were it possible for the preservation or 
assistance of all mankind ; like the mighty 
Hercules, whom the grateful voice of man- 
that is least subjected to reason j for (continues he) no man is 
by nature endowed with virtue -, but all mankind may attain 
to it through long practice ; now there is no occasion /or prac- 
tice to acquire a thing that is natural. In short, it is the 
common opinion of all philosophers, particularly St. Paul, in 
his Epistles, and Plato, in his Gorgias, that virtue is not 
natural, though at the same time it has nothing in it that is 
repugnant to nature." 

Notwithstanding this charge, if we take the whole of what 
our author says, under one view, his argument is very strong 
and conclusive. 

" Man (says he) was born with certain affections of nature, 
amongst which self-preservation was the first, and his reason 
(which, likewise, is natural to him) led him to cultivate that 
affection, by associating himself with others, and making 
general provisions, in order that the preservation of himself 
may be secured by the preservation of the whole. Virtue was 
pointed out by reason, as being the basis of all those provi- 
sions j they could have had no other basis ; and virtue, there- 
fore, is most agreeable to the nature of man. Besides this, as 
virtue is the only thing that ought to be desirable in life, and 
as men by nature aim at perfection, virtue in this sense 
likewise is most agreeable to nature." 

Cicero therefore does not, as Calcagninus would have him, 
say that virtue is natural to man, but that it is of all objects 
the best suited to man's nature, that is, to the first affections 
of his nature, which are to seek his own happiness and pre- 
servation. Oar natural affections may, indeed, make war 
upon virtue, but that can only be, when reason, which is a 
constituent part of nature, is left out or is too weak j and St. 
Paul applies to grace, what Cicero applies to reason. As to 
the passage in the Gorgias of Plato, it is misunderstood, and 



184 CICERo's OFFICES, 

kind, mindful of his services, have placed in 
the assembly of the gods : this, I say, is more 
agreeable to nature, than with all the excel- 
lencies of beauty and strength, to live in retire- 
ment, not only without trouble, but amidst the 
most exquisite pleasures . Therefore, every man 
of an elevated noble genius prefers the one life 
to the other. From hence it follows, that the 
man who is directed by nature, never will injure 
another. 

Lastly, whoever injures his neighbour for his 
own profit, either thinks that he does nothing 
contrary to nature, or he thinks that death, 
i poverty, pain, the loss of children, relations, and 

friends, are more to be avoided than doing 
wrong to another. If he thinks, that by doing 
injustice to another, he does not commit a sin 
against nature; away with all reasoning with 
such a man, who deprives* human nature of 
humanity. But, if he thinks that injustice 
ought indeed to be avoided, but not so much as 
the more terrible evils of death, poverty, and 
pain, he is mistaken in thinking that the evils 

it is surprising so able a man as Calcagninus was, should mis- 
understand it. For in that dialogue, Plato introduces Socrates 
disputing with a rhetorician, one Gorgias, and Polus his dis- 
ciple, and having brought them over to his sentiments, a 
young fellow, one Callides, takes up the argument against 
Socrates, and endeavours to prove, that civil constitutions are 
repugnant to nature. 
* Deprives.'] Orig. Omnino hominem ex homine tollit. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 185 

which affect either the body or the fortune 
are more heavy than those which debauch the 
mind. /-t^» ^-A-^W-- 

VI. We, therefore, all of us ought to have it 
in view, that our own private advantage is the 
same with that of the community ; which, who- 
ever engrosses to himself, puts an end to all 
social intercourse amongst men. Now if it is 
a rule prescribed by nature itself, that man /^^ ^ 
ought to assist man, be who he will, merely p^cptL 
because he is man, she necessarily by that rule 
implies that the good of all ought to be the 
concern of all. Which being the case, it fol- 
lows, that we are all bound by one and the 
same law of nature ; and consequently that the 
law of nature forbids us to injure one another. 
Now, the first proposition being undoubtedly 
true, the latter must be so likewise. 

For it is absurd in some people to say, that 
they would not take any thing from a father or 
a brother in order to benefit themselves ; but 
that the case is different with regard to the rest 
of the community. Such men suppose that no 
rights and no relation amongst fellow-citizens 
arise on account of the public good. A sup- 
position that unhinges all society amongst men ! 
Others say that we ought to pay a regard to 
the interests of our own community, but not to 
those of strangers ; now such men break into 
the laws of that more extended society, that is 



186 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

u) dictated to all mankind by nature ; which, if 
dissolved, puts an entire end to all beneficence, 
liberality, goodness, and honesty ; and the man 
who abolishes these, ought to be looked upon 
as an offender against the immortal gods; be- 
cause he subverts human society, which is the 
appointment of the gods themselves ; and the 
strongest link of it is, that we hold it as a prin- 
ciple, that it is more contrary to nature for one 
man to rob another, than for him to endure all 
the unjust persecutions of fortune, of person, 
,)/A >ff*or even of mind, excepting* those that are dis- 

/\/ v Vyhonest in themselves; for honesty or justice is 
the mistress or queen of all the virtues. 

^ Here 1 may be asked, is he not a wise man 

who, when he is himself starving with hunger, 
carries off victuals from a fellow who is good 
for nothing upon earth ? I say, by no means. 

* Excepting.'] The original here is not a little obscure. 
Quce vacant justicia, is the common reading; in which case 
Gronovius thinks, that qua is the relative to incommoda; and 
the sense will be, " That is it more eligible for a man to be per- 
secuted unjustly by fortune:" and I am not sure, whether he is 
not in the right. I have, however, followed the sense of 
those, who read quce non vacant justicia, because I think it 
much more agreeable to Cicero's manner of writing, and his 
principles likewise; for, not only the Stoics, but other phi- 
losophers maintained, that the unjust affections of the mind 
were the greatest of all evils. So. that the evils of the mind, 
Cicero here means, are the griefs and concern that afflict the 
mind for the loss of friends, fortune, or the like. 



&*JL 



CICERo's OFFICES. 187 

For my life is not more valuable to me than the 
principle of wronging no man for my advantage 
ought to be. Again, should a worthy man, 
who is ready to perish with cold, have it in his 
power to strip Phalaris, a cruel inhuman tyrant, 
of his robe ; is he not to do it? 

There is a very ready rule for judging in all 
such cases. For if you carry off any thing from 
a fellow who is absolutely worthless, only that 
you may accommodate yourself; your conduct 
is unjustifiable, and a violation of the law of 
nature. But if you are in such a situation, as 
that, by saving your own life, you can be greatly 
beneficial to your country and the community ; 
I say, in such a case your stripping another 
man of a thing is not blameable. But if that 
is not the case, every man is to take up with 
his own inconveniency, rather than deprive 
another of what is his property. Upon the 
whole, therefore, disease or poverty, or the like, 
is not more against nature, than is our taking 
away or coveting what is the property of 
another. 

But, at the same time, it is not agreeable to 
nature for us to abandon the good of the com- 
munity ; for it carries with it injustice. That 
very law of nature, therefore, which preserves 
and describes the interests of mankind, abso- 
lutely dictates, that the necessary supports of 
life, may be transferred from an idle useless 






188 CICERO** OFFICES. 

member of society, to a worthy and a brave 
man whose death would bring great detriment 
to the community. Provided, that the party 
does not invade the other's property from an 
over-weening conceit of his own qualities, or 
love for his own person, but in the practice of 
every duty consults the interests of mankind, 
and of that human society so often recom- 
mended to our conduct. 

As to the case of Phalaris, it is very plain ; 
for so far from our having a fellowship with ty- 
rants, they ought to be the object of our aversion. 
Neither can it ever be against nature, if we can, 
to strip the man whom it is meritorious to kill. 
Nay, the whole pestilential execrable brood of 
tyrants ought to be extirpated from human 
society. For as we cut off those limbs that 
begin to be without circulation and sensation, 
and to infect the rest of the body : thus when 
the wildness and cruelty of a brute lives in the 
form of a man, he is as it were to be separated 
from all who possess the other inherent pro- 
perties of human nature. All questions about 
cases, wherein our duty is determined by cir- 
cumstances, are of the like kind. 

VII. I am therefore convinced, that Pansetius 
would have discussed this, and other points of 
the same nature, had he not been prevented by 
accidents or other business. But we have 
abundance of rules laid down in his former 



CICERo's OFFICES. 189 

books upon those very heads, by which we may 
learn what we are to avoid on account of its 
wickedness, and what is not absolutely to be 
avoided because it is not absolutely wicked. 
But as I am, as it were, to give the finishing* 
hand to a work that was left imperfect, but 
almost completed, I shall imitate the mathema- 
ticians, who instead of demonstrating all they 
teach, demand some principles to be granted 
them, that they may more readily explain their 
meaning. I therefore, my dear Cicero, desire 
you would allow me this principle if you can, ,, J&M**" 
that nothing is in itself desirable, besides the 
honestum. But if Cratippus will not suffer 
you to grant me so much, you must certainly , > 
allow that the honestum is the object in the 0jU/M^ 
world that is most desirable in itself. Either 
concession will answer my purpose; both the 
one and the other are probable, which is more 
than any other proposition upon this head is. 

And in the first place, Panaetius is right in 
maintaining it to be possible (not that profitable 
objects, for in that he would have gone against 
his own positions), but that objects which have 
an appearance of profit, may sometimes jar 
with those that are virtuous. As to what is 
profitable he repeats it, that nothing is so but 
what is virtuous at the same time, and that 
nothing is virtuous that is not profitable. And 
he maintains that of all opinions that are the 



x J*J$*ojU = 






190 CICERO's OFFICES, 

plagues of human society, the most detestable 
is that of men who separate those two principles. 
He therefore laid down that seeming (and it 
only was a seeming) contrariety ; not that we 
should ever prefer the profitable to the virtuous, 
but that we might form a just estimate of both, 
should we ever fall into any doubt upon that 
head. I am now to finish that part of his plan 
which he has not touched upon ; and that too 
out of my own funds (as the saying goes), 
without assistance from any other. For nothing 
has been wrote since the days of Panaetius 
concerning this subject: at least nothing that I 
have seen and can approve of. 

VIII. Now we necessarily are touched with 
every object that presents itself with an appear- 
ance of profit or utility. But if upon examining 
it more attentively, you perceive wickedness to 
be connected with that object which is thus 
seemingly useful, you are then not to abandon 
the true utility, but you are to take it for 
granted that where there is wickedness there 
can be no such thing as utility. Now as nothing 
is so contrary to nature as wickedness, so 
nothing is more agreeable to it than utility ; for 
nature affects whatever is fair, whatever is 
agreeable, whatever is uniform, and loathes 
their opposites. It therefore infallibly follows, 
that utility and wickedness cannot exist in the 
same object. In like manner if nature has 






CICERO'S OFFICE*. 191 

formed us to virtue, and if she, according to 
Zeno, is the only object that is desirable, or 
according to Aristotle, if she infinitely out- 
weighs all other objects, it will follow, that 
whatever is virtuous is either the sole, or the 
supreme good. Now what is good certainly 
is profitable, therefore whatever is virtuous is 
profitable. 

The mistaken principles therefore of dishonest 
men, whenever they fasten upon an object that 
has an appearance of profit to themselves, 
immediately put all consideration of virtue 
aside. This gives rise to assassinations, poi- u^ 
sonings, and forged wills, thefts, public cor- 
ruption, rapine, and the plundering of our allies 
and fellow-citizens. Hence proceeds the in- 
tolerable insolence of overgrown power ; this 
in short is the root of undue ambition ; and 
despotism in free states, is the most frightful, 
the most execrable monster we can figure to our 
minds. For they who possess it form their 
notions of the advantages attending it upon 
mistaken principles, without having any notion 
of the penalties inflicted by the laws, which 
they often violate, nor indeed of the wickedness 
of the thing, which of all punishments ought 
to be the most tormenting. 

Away, therefore, with all who doubt (for the 
whole of their system is wicked and detestable), 
whether they should follow what they see to be 



192 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

virtuous, or whether they should wilfully pollute 
themselves with guilt. There is wickedness in 
the very doubt, though nothing actual should 
follow upon it. We ought, therefore, never to 
doubt when it is wicked even to doubt. And if 
at any time we should have a subject of deli- 
beration, the hope and expectation of our being 
concealed and undiscovered ought never so 
much as to enter into our heads. For if we 
have made any proficiency at all in philosophy, 
we ought to lay it down as a fixed principle, 
that supposing it could be concealed from the 
knowledge of gods and men, yet we are to 
do nothing that is avaricious, nothing that is 
dishonest, nothing that is lewd, nothing that is 
lascivious. 

IX. Upon this principle it is, that Plato 
introduces his fable of Gyges ; who at a time 
went into an opening that had been made into 
the earth by excessive rains, and observed there 
a brazen horse with a door in its side, which he 
opened, and saw within the dead body of a man 
unusually large, with a gold ring upon one of 
its fingers, which he took, and put upon his 
own finger. Being the king's shepherd, he 
immediately returned to assist at an assembly of 
shepherds. There when he turned the stone of 
the ring to the inside of his finger, he became 
invisible to all, while he himself saw every 
thing; and when he turned the stone to the 



CICERo's OFFICES. 193 

outside of his finger, he became visible again. 
Taking advantage of this quality of the ring, 
he first lay with the queen, and then, by her 
assistance, he murdered his sovereign and 
master, and destroyed every body who he 
thought would stand in the way of his ambition, 
without being visible to any eye, while he was 
perpetrating his crimes. Thus, by the assistance 
of this ring, he became all of a sudden king of 
Lydia. Now if a man perfectly wise were to 
wear this ring, he would think himself no more 
at liberty to do a bad thing, than if he had it 
not. For men of virtue love not what is dark, 
but what is honest. 

Here some philosophers, otherwise well in- 
tentioned, but not quite penetrating, say (as if 
Plato either affirmed the truth or the possibility 
of the fact), that the whole of the story is a 
lying impudent fiction. Now the meaning of 
the ring, and the moral of the fable is this. Are 
you to commit a wicked action, to gratify your 
avarice, your ambition, your lust, or your love 
of power, though nobody was to know it, though 
nobody was to suspect it, and though it was to 
be for ever a secret both to gods and men? 
The ring, say those philosophers, is an impos- 
sible case. Granting* them to have a right to 

* Granting.'] Orig. Negant id fieri posse ; quanquam potest 
id quidem. I own myself very much dissatisfied with the com- 
mon acceptation of this passage, as it has been understood by 

o 



194 CICERO's OFFICES. 

make this objection, yet still I insist to know, 
were the thing possible, which they say is im- 
possible, how they would behave ? Their way 
of arguing is very illiberal. For they persist 
in denying the possibility of the thing, and there 
they hinge, without knowing the true meaning 
of the question ; which is, what they would do 
could they be concealed without launching into 
the question, whether it is possible for them to 
be concealed ? But supposing that they are to 
be pressed to death if they don't answer. Well, 
should their answer be, that provided they were 
sure of impunity they would act as best suited 
their own interests and desires; why then, they 
confess themselves to be bad men . But should 
their answer be in the negative, they then admit 
that every thing that is wicked is, from its own 
nature, to be avoided. But to return to my 
subject. 

X. Many incidents with regard to utility 

critics and commentators, who make Cicero say, that the case 
of Gyges is not an impossible one. This is, I think, a senti- 
ment unworthy of Cicero. I am therefore apt to think that 
the common reading is wrong ; or else, that it is to be under- 
stood in the sense I have translated it ; and even in this sense 
the passage, as it stands, is not indefensible, Quanquam potest 
id quidem (subintelligitur negari) sed quero, quod negant posse, 
id si posset, quidnam facerent ? 

As to what commentators talk of Cicero being here an ad- 
vocate for providence, and the power of God, there is no more 
foundation for it than there would be for calling a matt a good 
Christian, for asserting the reality of all our Saviour's Parables. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 195 

happen that are so specious as to confound our 
reason ; I don't mean so as to hesitate upon the 
preference of virtue to the greatest utility (for 
the very doubt carries wickedness along with it), 
but whether we may not, without any imputation 
of wickedness, pursue a measure that has an ap- 
pearance of utility or profit ? When Brutus de- 
prived his colleague Collatinus* of the consular 
command, he might be thought to act unjustly, 
because he was equally active with Brutus, and 
assisted in all the measures they took in expelling 
the royal family. But when the leading men 
of Rome came to a resolution of removing the 
kindred of the Proud, the surname of the Tar- . 
quins, and the very traces of monarchy ; as,/- : ' :/JjJ <)y 
those measures were for the public good> they V Jj$\ 
were so virtuous that they ought to have been 
approved of by Collatinus himself. The utility 
of the measure, therefore, in this case was sanc- 
tified by its virtue, which gave it all the utility 
it had. 

But the case of the royal founder of Rome was 
different. (lis reason was hoodwinked by the 

* Collatinus.'] I cannot help thinking, that Cicero said to 
this treatise what Ovid said to one of his poems, Infelix habi- 
tum temporis hujus habe. He seems to be immoderately ex- 
asperated at all tyrants for Caesar's sake ; for unless he knew 
more of the story of Brutus and Collatinus than has come to 
our hands, I cannot 'think it very applicable in this case. The 
non Civium ardor prava jubentium of Horace is a much better 
system of patriotism than that which he approves of here. 

o2 



196 CICERO*? OFFICES. 

appearance of profit ; for he killed his brother 
because he thought it more profitable for him to 
reign by himself than jointly with another. 
Thus did he divest himself of the affections both 
of a brother and a man, in order to attain to 
that which appeared to be, but in reality was not 
profitable. Meanwhile he alleged the story of 
the walls in his own vindication ; an improbable 
shuffling apology. He therefore acted wickedly, 
no offence to the memory either of the god or 
thejnonarch.* 

We are not, however, to overlook our own 
advantages or to make them over to another 
when we stand in need of them ourselves ; for 
every man, when he can do it without injuring 
his neighbour, ought to avail himself of the ad- 
vantage he possesses. Chrysippus,-f amongst 
many other sensible things, says, 

" The man who runs a race ought to stretch 
and to strain all he can in order to come in fore- 
most, but he ought by no means to jostle or to 
trip up the heels of the man he runs with. 
Thus, in life it is not unfair for a man to appro- 
priate to himself whatever may conduce to his 

* God or the monarch.'] Orig. Pace vel Quirini vel Romuli 
dixerim. Romulus killed his brother, pretending that the lat- 
ter had been guilty of an insult upon him by leaping in deri- 
sion over his walls which he was erecting. After his death, 
which he probably came to by his tyranny, he was made a god 
by the name of Quirinus. 

f Chrysippus.'] He was a Stoic of great reputatiou. 



CICERO's OFFICES. 197 \ ). 

utility ; but it is unjust for him to rob another a*""* 

of it." 

Now the duties are very liable to be con- 
founded in matters of friendship, it being equally 
inconsistent with our duty, not to do a friend all 
the services we fairly can, and to perform 
services for him that are unjustifiable. But the 
rule in all matters of this kind is short and easy. 
For no considerations of profit, such as riches, 
honours, pleasures, and the like, are ever to take 
place of friendship. Yet a good man will not, 
to serve his friend, do any thing inconsistent 
with the good of his country, his oath, or his 
promise; even supposing him to be a judge in 
a matter* that concerns his friend ; for he puts 
off the character of the friend, when he assumes 
that of the judge. All in such a case that friend- 
ship requires is, to wish his friend to have jus- 

* Judge in a matter.] Orig. Judex. I have in the course 
of my translating other works of our author,, occasionally taken 
notice, that in Cicero's time the simple word judex did not 
properly signify a judge who gives a definitive sentence, but 
in fact a juryman ; and were it not that it would give too 
modern an air to this translation, I would translate it so. The 
judge, in a cause whether civil or criminal, was either the 
judex questioniSj or the praetor, who was obliged to pronounce 
sentence according to the verdict of the judices or jurymen, 
which he collected from the majority of their voices. They 
were in aU seventy-two, sometimes more, sometimes fewer, 
and the party tried in criminal matters was, as with us, 
allowed a challenge (giving his reasons), against as many as 
he thought fit. 









J* 



J.y< CICERO S OFFIl 



tice on his side ; and, as far as law admits of 
to indulge him in a convenient time for pleading 
his cause. 

But when he is to give his verdict upon oath ; 
he ought to remember that he calls divinity to 
j witness; meaning, in my opinion, his own con- 
science, the most divine thing that divinity has 
bestowed upon man. It was therefore, a most 
commendable practice of our ancestors (and I 
wish it had descended to their posterity)* for 
when they solicited a judge, they bespoke his 
favour as far as was consistent with his oath. 
This solicitation is of the same nature with 
what I before observed a judge might virtuously 
grant to his friend. But were men to do every 
thing their friends desire them, such men would 
not be parties in friendship, but confederates 
in guilt. 

I speak all this time of friendship as it is 
commonly understood and practised; for, in 
men who are wise and perfect no such thing 
can exist. We are told, an instance of the union 
of affections between Damon and Phithias, who 
were Pythagoreans. The tyrant Dionysius con- 

* Posterity.'] I cannot conceive what Grsevius means in ob- 
jecting to the genuineness of this passage. " We cannot 
imagine (says, he) that the Romans in Cicero's time were so 
abandoned and so wicked, as to require any thing of a judge 
that was inconsistent with his oath." I can very well imagine 
it, considering their great degeneracy and disregard, not only 
of the spirit but the forms of their constitution. 






Wi 



CICERO S OFFICES. 199 

demned one of them to be put to death on a 
certain day, but he obtaining his liberty for a 
few days to put his affairs in order, the other 
became bail for him, body for body, that in 
case his friend did not return by the day, he 
should die in his stead. But the condemned 
person returning to the day, the tyrant was so 
much struck with this generosity, that he de- 
sired to be admitted a third person in their 
friendship. 

Therefore, should a competition arise in p$* 
friendship, between what is seemingly profitable 
and what is really virtuous, the former ought to 
be disregarded, and the latter preferred. Nay 
farther, in point of friendship, should we be 
called upon to do ought that is dishonest, let 
conscience and honour take place. By this 
means we shall attain to what we are now pur- 
suing, I mean a rule for the right practice of 
this duty. 

XI. But, in affairs of government, many mis- 
takes arise from the appearances of utility. Wit- 
ness our utterly demolishing Corinth.* The 
Athenians acted still more unjustifiably, by 

* Corinth.'] Our author blames this severity in another 
part of this work, and if the Romans had destroyed the inha- 
bitants as well as the city, it would have been indefensible $ 
but he hints at a very good reason they might have had for it, 
viz. the advantages of its situation, which might have pro- 
voked a rebellion in future times. 



^A 



i^^^'" cruelty 



200 CICERo's OFFICES. 

decreeing that the iEgineans, because they 
were powerful at sea, should have their thumbs 
cut off. Even this, to them, had an appearance 
of advantage ; because iEgina lay too contiguous 
to their port of Piraeum.* But nothing that is 
cruel can be profitable. For human nature, 
which ought to direct us, is utterly averse to 



It is likewise absurd in a people to expel and 
shut out strangers from their cities ; as Psenus-j* 
did in former times, and PapiusJ lately. It is 
true, that it would be impolitic to indulge a 
stranger in all the privileges of a citizen ; and 
two very wise consuls[| carried through a law 
to that effect ; but to debar a stranger from all 
intercourse with your city, is downright bar* 
barism. In those cases, it is glorious to despise 

* Pirceum.'] This barbarous cruelty, we are told by other 
authors, was inflicted by the Athenians on another occasion, 
for they cut off the thumbs of the captives whom they took in 
the Peloponesian war. 

f Pcenusi] He was tribune in the year of Rome six hundred 
and fifty seven. 

X Papius."] He was tribune in the year of Rome six hundred 
and eighty, two years before Cicero was consul, and restored 
the law of Paenus, which had fallen into desuetude. Now 
this law regarded only the city of Rome, which was to be 
inhabited by none who were not natives of Italy. But by the 
Mucia-Licinian law, any foreigner might have had the privi- 
leges of a Roman citizen. 

|| Consuls.'] Viz. Quintus Scaevola andLicinius Crassus, who- 
carried through the Mucia-Licinian law, 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 201 

the appearances of public utility for real virtue. 
We have had in our own country many noble 
instances of this magnanimity, especially in the 
second Carthagenian war, when our ancestors, 
after the dreadful defeat they received at Cannae, 
discovered more spirit than they ever had done 
in the time of their prosperity. No indication 
of fear — no mention of a treaty — so powerful is 
virtue, that it effaces every false semblance of 
utility. 

When the Athenians found themselves utterly 
unable to stand the shock of the Persian power, 
and had resolved to abandon their city, to place 
their wives and children at Trezsene, then to go 
on board their ships, and to defend at sea the 
liberties of Greece, they stoned to death one 
Cyrillus,* who spoke for their remaining in their 
city, and opening their gates to Xerxes. Now 
this man seemed to plead for the most profitable 
measure ; but there can be no profit without 
virtue. 

In the same war, after the great victory that 
was gained over the Persians, Themistoclesf 
said, in an assembly of the people, that he knew 
of a project that would be of service to the 
state, but that it must not be publicly known ; 

* Cyrillus.'] Demosthenes, in one of his Orations, adds, 
that his wife was murdered by the Athenian women. 

t Themistocles.] We have the story in the life of Themis - 
tocles, by Plutarch. 



202 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

he, therefore, desired the people to appoint 
some one to confer with him. Aristides was 
appointed. The project was, privately to set 
fire to the Lacedaemonian fleet, which had been 
brought down to Gytheum, and that would 
infallibly ruin the power of Lacedaemon . When 
Aristides returned to make his report to the 
assembly of the people, who were very impatient 
to hear it, he acquainted them that the proposal 
of Themistocles was indeed profitable, but dis- 
honest. The Athenians therefore (because it 
was dishonest, concluding that it could not even 
be profitable) upon the report of Aristides, flatly 
rejected the proposal by the lump, without hear- 
ing any particulars. Their conduct was more 
justifiable than ours, for we indemnify the 
robbers, and oppress the allies of our country. 
Let us, therefore, lay it down as an invariable 
principle, that nothing that is dishonourable or 
dishonest can ever be profitable, not even after 
you are in possession of what you took to he 
profitable. For it is most pernicious to ima- 
gine that any thing dishonest can be profitable. 
XII. Now, as I observed before, cases often 
happen wherein there appears a repugnancy of 
utility to virtue, but then we ought carefully to 
examine whether this repugnancy is insurmount- 
able, and whether the two principles are not 
fairly reconcileable together. Of such a nature 
are the following cases. Supposing a man of 



CICERo's OFFICES. 203 

virtue, at a time when the Rhodians are deeply , mja~ 
distressed with want and famine, should import 
a large quantity of corn into Rhodes from Alex- 
andria. At the same time, he knows that several 
other merchants have loaded their ships with 
corn, and saw them on their voyage from Alex- 
andria to Rhodes. The question is, whether he 
is to conceal this circumstance from the Rho- 
dians, or is he to make the best market he can ? 
Now, supposing this man to be a wise con- 
scientious person, what will be the matter of 
deliberation with him in this case ? He will 
make no doubt of his not concealing the matter 
from the Rhodians, if there is dishonesty in 
that concealment, but his doubt will be whether 
there is dishonesty in it or not. 

In questions of this kind, there used to be a 
difference in opinion between Diogenes* of Ba- 
bylon, a learned serious Stoic, and his scholar 
Antipater,f a man of great penetration. Anti- 
pater was for laying every thing open, and for 
concealing from the buyer nothing that was 
known by the seller. But Diogenes thought, 
that the seller ought to discover, in the terms 
required by the civil law, the faults of his com- 

* Diogenes.'] He was one of the three learned men sent by 
the Athenians as their ambassador to Rome, and was greatly 
admired by Africanus the elder, and Laelius, and other wise 
and noble Romans. 

f Antipater.'] He was master toPanaetius. 



204 CICERO'S OFFICES, 

modity, and, in every other respect, to act upon 
the square ; but since he is come to market, 
that he ought to make the best market he can. 
I have imported my cargo, I have exposed my 
goods to sale, I sell no dearer than my neigh- 
bours (perhaps cheaper if the imports increase) 
and pray who suffers by all this ? 

" But (says Anti pater), in answer to this, how 
do you mean ? Will you, the very condition of 
whose existence, the very principles of whose 
nature, which ought to be your mistress and 
directress, is, that you be the friend of man, 
that you contribute to the happiness of human 
society, whose advantages are to be the same 
with those of the public, and those of the 
public the same with yours ; will you, I say, 
conceal from your fellow-creatures their ap- 
proaching relief and affluence ?" Here Diogenes 
may reply, "Concealment and silence are different 
things ; if I am not at this very time explaining 
to you the nature of the gods or the final good, 
matters of greater importance to you than the 
benefit of the approaching corn, yet I am not 
concealing them. But it is not necessary for 
me to speak all that may be profitable for you to 
hear/' " You will pardon me, (replies the 
other), it is necessary, if you pay any regard to 
that society which nature has linked together." 
" I do (answers Diogenes), but is that society of 
such a nature, that nothing in it can be called a 



CICERO's OFFICES. 205 

man's own ? If that is the case, we are not to 
sell any thing but to give it away." 

XIII. You see that actual dishonesty is en- 
tirely out on the one side of the question in all 
this debate, which reaches no farther than the 
expediency of the measure. He does not say 
I will do it, because though it is dishonest, yet 
it is profitable, but, that the profit of it is at- 
tended with no dishonesty ; while the other 
party maintains that it ought not to be done 
because it is dishonest. I A conscientious man 
sells a tenement of houses, because of certain 
faults which nobody but himself knows of. 
They are infected, and they are thought to be 
healthy ; nobody knows that every bedchamber 
is infested with snakes ; that the materials are 
rotten, and the building ruinous. All this is un- 
known to any but the owner. Now I ask, 
whether, if the owner of those houses does not 
inform the buyer of all this, but sells them for 
more than in his conscience he knows them to 
be worth, whether he does not act like a villain 
and a cheat ? 

No manner of doubt he does (answers Anti- 
pater), why it is every whit as bad, nay the same 
thing, as not putting the bewildered traveller 
into the right road, to which the laws of Athens 
annexed a public curse ; to suffer a buyer to 
plunge into a bad bargain, and through igno- 
rance to rush into a very great misfortune ! Nay 



206 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

it is even worse than not showing* the way, for it 
is wilfully and willingly leading another man 
into a mistake. But (says Diogenes on the 
other hand) how so ? Did the seller force, did 
he so much as invite the buyer to make the pur- 
aF chase? The one has advertised the houses for 
\jr sale because he disliked them, the other has pur- 
k&' chased them because he liked them. Now if 

the man who advertises* " To be sold a sub- 
stantial well built house," is not to be accounted 
a rogue, even though it is neither " substantial" 
nor "well built," far less is the seller to be blamed 
who does not say a word one way or the other. 
For when the buyer buys according to the evi- 
dence of his own judgment, how can the seller 
be guilty of any imposition ? Now if, as in the 
case of an advertisement, a man is not obliged 
to make good all that he says, are you to oblige 
him to make good what he does not say ? And 
indeed what can be more simple than for a man 
to tell the faults of a thing he is about to sell ? 
Could any thing be more ridiculous than to hear 
a common crier proclaim by a landlord's order, 
* " I am about to sell an infected house." 

In some doubtful cases therefore, virtue is 
defended on the one part, and on the other utility 
is so strongly enforced, that it is maintained, 

* Advertises.'] The Romans put up bills advertising any 
thing to be sold, in the same manner as we do. Orig<r 
Prqscripsit. 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 207 

the doing a profitable thing is not only virtuous, 
but that it would be dishonest not to do it. 
Those are instances of the disagreement that 
often arises between considerations of profit and 
of virtue. Now let us come to some determi- 
nation upon the cases I have put, for I have stated 
them not to perplex but to be explained. 

In my opinion then, neither the corn merchant 
at Rhodes, nor the landlord at Rome, ought to 
have kept their buyers in the dark. As to 
silence being no concealment, it becomes so, if 
for your own profit, you want to keep others in 
the dark as to things that you know, and at the 
same time concern them to know. Now can 
there be a doubt of the nature of concealments 
of this sort, and of the character of those who 
practise them ? They surely are not consistent 
with that of an open, well-meaning, generous, 
honest, worthy man ; but of the crafty, the 
sneaking, cunning, deceitful, wicked, sly, jug- 
gling, and the roguish, Must it not be a detri- 
ment for any man to lie under those and many 
other imputations upon his reputation ? 

XIV. But if they who say nothing at all are 
blameable, what judgment are we to form of 
those who have employed downright lies that 
they may over-reach another. Caius Canius a 
Roman knight, a man of some wit and learning, 
when for the sake of leisure,* and not of treasure 

* Leisure."] There is in the original a jingle, that I thought 






208 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

(to make use of his own terms), he went to Sy- 
^ racuse, he was heard to say that he wanted to 
buy a seat near that city, where he might enter- 
tain his friends, and amuse himself without any 



V* >l$"\ intruders upon his retirement. When this in- 
^ tention of his came to be a good deal talked of, 

one Pythius a banker at Syracuse, told him, that 
he had indeed, no seat to sell, but that he had 
a seat that Canius might make use of as his 
own, and at the same time he invited him to 
dine with him there next day. Canius having 
accepted of the invitation, Pythius who by 
dealing in money had a great deal to say with all 
ranks of men, sent for the fishermen and desired 
them to draw their nets next day, just before 
his garden, and gave them instructions what to 
do farther. Canius was punctual to his invita- 
tion ; the entertainment Pythius gave was ele- 
gant ; the water before the gardens was covered 
with boats, and every fisherman bringing ashore 
the fish he had caught, laid them before Pythius. 
" Prithee Pythius (said Canius) what is the 
meaning of all those fishes and such a number of 
boats ?' tis surprising !" " Not a bit (replied the 
other), here we have all the fish that is taken at 
Syracuse ; it is here they have depth of water, 
these fishermen could not carry on their business 
but for this seat of mine." This made Canius 

myself obliged to preserve in the translation, viz, Otiandi non 
negotiandi Causa. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 209 

so eager to have the seat, that he was very pressing 
with the other to sell it. Pythius was very shy 
at first, but in short Canius who was both rich 
and keen upon the purchase carried his point ; 
Pythius made his own price, and sold his seat 
ready furnished, security is given for the money, 
and the bargain is finished. Next day Canius 
invites his friends. He comes himself early, 
he sees no boat, he inquires of his next neigh- 
bour whether that was a holiday amongst the 
fishermen as he saw no boats. " Why no (replied 
the other), no boats ever fish here, and I could 
not think what the meaning was yesterday/' You 
may guess what a rage Canius was in. But he 
had no remedy. 

For my colleague and friend Aquilius* had 
not yet published his provisions against cozen- 
age ; on which occasion being required to 
define cozenage, he said, " That it was pre- 
tending one thing and doing another." This 
must be owned to be a full and clear definition, 
and indeed Aquilius had an excellent talent in 

Aquilius.'] He was Cicero's colleague in the praetorship. 
Before his time the knowledge of the civil law, or rather the 
law x)f the twelve tables was confined to the lawyers, inso- 
much that we see Canius above mentioned did not know there 
was any remedy for the cheat that had been put upon him 
by the banker ; the provisions here spoken of, were certain 
forms of words made use of by the Romans in their dealings, and 
if these were not agreeable to that form, an action at law lay 
against the party. 



210 CICERo's OFFICER 

defining any thing. Pythius therefore, and all 
who do one thing and pretend another, are 
traitors, rogues, and cozeners ; nor can any 
thing they do be profitable, when it is polluted 
with such scandal attending it. 

XV. But if the definition given by Aquilius 
is a true one, there ought to be no such thing in 
life, as either simulation or dissimulation. For 
a good man will practise neither, either to buy 
or to sell to advantage. But in fact our laws 
provided against that kind of cozenage, witness 
the provision in the twelve tables about ward- 
ships, and the laws of Lsetorius* about incapa- 
citating young men; and the decisions in equity 
without any law, but upon the action of fide 
■$ Jc bona agitur or honest intention. Now the 
directing words in other actions of equity are, 
in a reference upon a matrimonial affair melius 
equius, more fair and more equitably ; in 
matters of trust, Ut inter bonos bene agier, to 
act as is use and wont amongst good men. Now 
where the ruling principle is more fairness and 
more equity, can there be the least room for 
cozenage ? And where the use and wont of 
good men is the direction, can any unjust frau- 
dulent practices take place ? But according to 
Aquilius, dolus malus, or cozenage, lies in 

* LcBtorius.'] This was a law to incapacitate all who were 
under twenty-five years of age from making contracts of a 
certain nature. 



CICERO's OFFICES. 211 

simulation, or pretending a thing is that is not ; 
therefore in all our transactions we ought to 
detest lying of any kind. Neither buyer nor 
seller ought to employ sham bidders to enhance 
or beat down the value of what is put up ; when 
they come to make a bargain, both of them 
ought to make but one word of it. 

Quintus Scsevola, the son of Publius, wanting 
to buy an estate, desired the seller to let him 
know at a word what he must pay him ; the 
seller did so, but Scaevola told him he thought it 
was worth more, and gave him a large sum over 
and above. All mankind must admit that this 
was acting like a conscientious man, but some 
will say that it was not acting like a wise man : &*** 
for by the same rule he might have sold a thing -jsjuom*-, 
for less than he might have had for it. Thus a 
most damnable distinction is introduced between 
virtuous men and wise men. Hence Ennius 
says, " that wisdom* is unwise if she cannot act 
so as to profit herself." I agree she is, provided 
Ennius and 1 agree upon the nature of what is 
profitable. It is true that Hecatof the Rhodian, 
a disciple of Panaetius, in his treatise about the 
moral duties, which he addressed to Quintus 
Tubero,* says : 

* 7 hat wisdom.'] Nequicquam sapere sapientem. 
t Hecate.] He lived about the year of Rome 640. 
% Tuber o.] He was a noble and learned Roman, but by 
his attachment to the Stoic philosophy, he lost the praetorship. 

p2 



212 cicero's offices. 

" That it is the part of a wise man, while he 
does nothing to violate the customs, the laws, 
and the constitution of his country, to improve his 
private estate. For it is not enough that we en- 
rich ourselves, because we ought likewise to en- 
rich our children, our relations, our friends, and 
above all, our country. For the riches of a 
state consist in the power and wealth of its indi- 
viduals/' This is a doctrine very irreconcile- 
able to the action of Scsevola I have just now 
mentioned . For in fact Hecato tells us, that if 
he can keep out of the reach of the law, there 
is nothing he will not do for his own advantage. 
A doctrine that is at once ignoble and unamiable ! 

But if cozenage consists in simulation and 
dissimulation, few are the occurrences of life in 
which cozenage is not practised ; and if the 
characteristic of an honest man is that he does all 
the good he can without injuring any, I will 
take upon me to say that such a man is not 
readily to be found. Wickedness, to conclude, 
never can be profitable, because it is always dis- 
graceful ; and because honesty is always laudable, 
it is always profitable. 

XVI. With regard to the laws of sale, the 
civil constitutions have provided, that the seller 
should discover all the blemishes he knows of 
the thing he sells. For though the laws of the 
twelve tables go no farther than to oblige a 
party to perform all his parole engagements 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 213 

under the penalty of forfeiting double, yet 
lawyers have likewise annexed a punishment to 
concealment. For they have laid it down as 
law, that if there is a defect or inconveniency in 
an estate, and if it be known to the seller, and he 
does not declare the same to the purchaser, the 
same shall be made good by the seller. 

For instance : when the augurs were about to ; m>w 
take some auspices from the augural observatory, 
they ordered Titus Claudius Centumalus to 
demolish his house that he had upon the Cselian 
mount, because the height of it obstructed their 
observations. Claudius advertised the whole 
estate, and sold it to Publius Calphurnius 
Lanarius, who received the same notice from 
the college of augurs. Calphurnius accordingly 
pulled the house down, but when he came to 
know that Claudius had advertised it for sale, 
after the notice he had received for demolishing 
it from the augurs, he brought the matter into 
a court of equity, ' that he might have such 
amends as right and conscience should award/ 
Marcus Cato, father to Cato our friend (for 
though it is common for sons to be known by 
the names of their fathers, yet the father of this 
light of the age is to be known by his son), was 
on the bench. The decree of this judge 
therefore was, that as the seller knew before he 
sold the estate of the notice from the augurs, 
and did not declare the same to the buyer, the 



214 CICEtto's OFFICES. 

seller was therefore bound to make good the 
damage to the buyer. 

Thus he thought it was a maxim in equity, 
that a buyer should be made acquainted with 
every blemish that is known to the seller. But 
if his decree was right, neither our corn mer- 
chant nor the landlord of the infected house can 
be justified in their concealing what they knew. 
It is true our civil constitutions could not guard 
against every species of such concealment, but 
they have very strictly guarded against all they 
can. Marcus Marius Graditianus, who is 
related to our family, had sold an estate in 
houses to Caius Sergius Grata, which very 
estate he had bought from Sergius a few years 
before. The estate held in servitude of Ser- 
gius,* but Marius had made no mention of that, 
before he made the conveyance. The matter 
was litigated. Crassus was council for Orata, 
and Antonius for Graditianus. Crassus hinged 
upon the point of law which says, that if a seller 
knows of an inconveniency, and conceals the 
same, he shalrmake it good. Antonius on the 
other hand, argued upon the equity: that as 
Sergius, who had sold the house, could not be 
ignorant of that inconveniency, there was no 

* Orig. Hcec Sergio serviebant."] This is a law expression 
made use of to express certain privileges upon them which the 
seller of an estate or house reserves to himself when he sells 
them. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 215 

necessity to tell him of it. That he was not 
imposed upon, because he was perfectly well 
acquainted with the title under which he bought. 
But what does all this prove ? You will only 
see from it, that craft and shuffling was by no 
means agreeable to our ancestors. a 

XVII. But the laws proceed in one method, 
and philosophers in another, against frauds. 
The laws have cognizance of them only when 
they are palpable, but philosophers, as they are 
sins against reason and conscience, be they ever 
so concealed . But reason requires that nothing 
be done insidiously, nothing hypocritically, 
nothing deceitfully. Now is it not insidious to 
plant a gin, though you don't rouse and hunt 
the creatures into it, for they often fall into the 
trap without being driven. Thus you advertise 
a house to be sold, you plant advertisements in 
public places as so many gins ; you sell your 
house because of its faults ; and some one, for 
not knowing better, falls into the snare. 

The depravity of custom has I know ren- 
dered this practice neither scandalous in life 
nor punishable by law ; but though it is cog- 
nizable neither by law nor statutes, yet it is by 
the law of nature. I have said it often, and I 
must say it again, that society in. the most general 
acceptation of the word, is of men with men. 
In a more contracted sense of men of the same 
nation, and in a more contracted still, of men 






216 CICERO^ OFFICES. 

- 

V^'-., of the same city. Our ancestors therefore made 
a distinction between the law of nations, and the 
municipal laws. The municipal* may not in 
every respect be always the same with the law of 
nations, but the law of nations ought always to 
be the groundwork of the municipal. We havef 
no original mould taken from the very figure of 

* The municipal.'] Orig. Quod civile non idem continuo 
Gentium, quod autem Gentium, idem civile esse debet. Doctor 
Cockman translates this passage as follows, and is very full in 
his notes upon it : " Whatever we are bound by the civil con- 
stitutions to do to our citizens, we are not obliged by the law 
of nations to do the same to strangers 5 but whatever we are 
bound by this latter to do to others, the same we ought to do 
to our citizens also." 

For my own part I think Cicero's sense to be very plain 
without any paraphrase. Amongst the Romans the civil law 
was the law of their own state and city, and was therefore 
made use of by them in the sense in which I use the word 
municipal, which amongst them was confined to their muni- 
cipia, but we extend it to the laws that are peculiar to each 
state. Now though a particular state may through con- 
veniency or some other reason, make ingraftments upon the 
law of nations, yet they ought to do nothing contrary to it, 
because the law of nations contains the fundamentals of human 
society. 

f We have, #c] This elegant passage is exceedingly 
difficult to translate, as it alludes to the arts of sculpture and 
drawing. I have expressed it as literally as I could, but for 
the reader's satisfaction I shall here set down the original. 
Sed nos veri Juris, Germanceque Justitice solidam # expressam 
Effigigiem nullum tenemus : Umbris # Imaginibus utimur : eas 
ipsas utinam sequeremur ! feruntur enim ex optimis natura # 
Veritatis Exemplis. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 217 

living law and genuine justice : delineations and 
sketches are all we have, and I wish we could 
follow them, for they are taken from those 
excellent copies that were drawn by nature and 
truth. 

For how much force is there in the form, that 
ensnared by trusting to you and your honour, I 
be not cozened. How much is implied in that 
golden one, as ought to be in honest dealings 
amongst honest men, and without deceit. But 
who those honest men, and what those honest 
dealings are, is the great doubt. I know that 
the high priest, Quintus Scsevola, said, there was 
the greatest force in those proceedings that were 
in their forms according to good faith, for he 
thought that the expression good faith was of 
the most extensive influence, and reached to 
wardships, companies, trusts, commissioners, 
purchases, sales, letting, and lending, which 
make up the system of social transactions. It 
requires a very discerning head (especially as 
there is such contrariety of opinions) to deter- 
mine in such a variety of circumstances that 
may happen, how one man ought to act towards 
another. 

Away therefore with all craft, and all that 
cunning which affects to look so very like 
knowledge, but has very, very different pro- 
perties. For knowledge consists in distinguish- 
ing rightly in the choice of things good or evil ; 






218 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

but cunning (if every thing is evil that is 
dishonest), prefers the evil to the good. Nor is 
it only in the purchases of lands and houses that 
the laws of our government which are taken 
from nature, punish cunning and fraud. For 
$* in buying of slaves, all fraud in the seller is 
guarded against; for the edict of the aedile pre- 
sumes, that he knows whether the slave is sickly, 
a runaway, or a thief, and provides against all 
imposition accordingly. The case, however, is 
different with regard to an heir.* 

From hence it follows, that nature, being the 
source of law, the property of nature is that we 
do nothing to take advantage from another man's 
ignorance. Nor is there in life any thing more 
pernicious than rogueryf that wears the mask of 
understanding ; because she creates that multi- 
tude of cases which seem to set the profitable and 
the virtuous at variance with one another ; for 
where is the man to be found who will be proof 
against wronging his neighbour, if through the 

* Heirs.~\ Because being newly come to his estate, he is not 
presumed to be acquainted with the dispositions ofhis slaves. 

f Roguery"] . Orig. Militia simulatio intelligentia. I think 
this passage has been misunderstood. Dr. Cockman translates 
the whole of this sentence, ' ' And indeed there is no greater 
mischief in the world than this wisdom, falsely so named, 
joined with baseness and knavery.' 1 But I cannot think that 
this comes up to our author's sense. L'Estrange seems to 
have had no idea of the original, for he translates it, " Craft 
under the mask of simplicity." 



CICERO's OFFICES. 219 

impossibility of being detected he knows him- 
self secure against all punishment? 

XVIII. Let me now, if you please, make some 
inquiry with regard to those cases in which, 
perhaps, the common run of mankind think they 
do nothing amiss. For you are to understand 
that I am not in this place to speak of mur- 
derers, poisoners, forgers, thieves, and public 
robbers ; for such people are not to be reclaimed 
by the precepts and disputations of philosophers, 
but by jails and fetters. No, I am to examine 
the conduct of those who are in habit and re- 
pute men of worth.* Some people brought out 
of Greece to Rome a forged will, supposed to be 
that of IVIinucius Basil us, a rich man, and the 
better to succeed in their designs, they made 
Marcus Crassus and Quintus Hortensius, two 

* Men of worth.] Orig. Boni. I wish our critics and trans- 
lators had paid a little more attention to the importance of this 
word with our author, when he applies it to certain of his 
countrymen ; for it generally conveys a concealed satire along 
with it. In short, he uses the word bonus here and elsewhere 
in his writings, to signify a good man, as that expression is 
understood upon the Exchange of London, or in Lombard- 
street ; viz. a man of credit, who preserves all fairness and in- 
tegrity, and for any thing that appears to the contrary, really 
possesses the virtues themselves. Dr. Cockman translates it, 
" Men of honesty and integrity j" but these words do not 
convey our author's idea. I have translated it, " Men of 
worth," because there is a kind of double meaning in the word 
worth, which Cicero certainly had in his eye here and else- 
where, when he uses the word bonus in this sense. 



220 cicero's offices. 

men of the greatest eminence at that time, joint 
heirs with themselves. Now, though those two 
great men suspected the forgery, yet being satis- 
fied in their consciences that they had no hand 
in it, they did not refuse the small present that 
was made them through the guilt of others. 
Well, was it enough, do you think, for them to 
be conscious of not being active or concerned in 
\>) the crime. No, in my opinion it was not; 
though I always was a friend to the one while 
he lived, and am no enemy to the other now 
that he is dead. 

But after Basilus had designed Marcus Satrius, 
his sister's son, to carry his name, and had made 
him his heir (the words are, " I make him the 
lord of my Picenian and Sabine estates"), is it not 
an infamy, is it not a stain upon the justice of 
those days, that two of the most leading men in 
Rome should possess the estate while the true 
heir succeeded to nothing but the name of his 
uncle ? For if, as I observed in the first Book 
of this Treatise, the conduct of a man who does 
not resist or repel an injury when it is offered to 
any he is concerned with is blameable, how are 
we to judge of a man, who is so far from repel- 
ling, that he promotes an injury. To me, I 
speak for myself, even real legacies are dis- 
\ honourable, when they are acquired by the arts 
of fawning, deceit, and flattery, by hypocrisy, 
and not by sincerity. Now, in those kinds of 



CICERO** OFFICES. 221 

matters, utility and virtue seem sometimes to 
be on different sides. But that is a mistake ; 
for the principles of true utility and real virtue 
are the same. And the man who is not con- 
vinced of that, must be exposed to commit every 
fraud and every villany ; for by reasoning with- 
in himself in this manner, " such or such a mea- 
sure, it is true, is virtuous, but the other is pro- 
fitable •" he blindly presumes to tear asunder 
considerations that nature has joined together ; 
an error that is the source of all fraud, all wick- 
edness, and all guilt. 

Therefore, if a man truly good had the art of 
slipping his name into the last wills of rich per- 
sons by only snapping his fingers, yet would he 
not use that art, even though he was secure 
against all suspicion. But endow Marcus Cras- 
sus with the knack of slipping into a will of a 
man, to whom he is in no way related, by snap- 
ping his fingers, and he shall even agree to 
dance in the forum.* But an honest man, or a 
man who lives up to my idea of honesty, will 
never make what ought to be another man's pro- 
perty his own. The man who is in love with 
such practices, admits in fact that he is ignorant 
of what honesty means. 

Now were a man to examine the naked unin- 
fluenced sentiments of his own heart, it would 
instruct him, that an honest man is he who does 

* Forum.'] Which was accounted infamous. 



222 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

good to all he can, and who injures no man un- 
less he is provoked by injury. Yet how ? Does 
that man who removes it as it were by a charm 
the true heir, and gets himself substituted in his 
place, commit no injury ? But it may be said, 
is a man to do nothing for his own profit or con- 
veniency ? To be sure he is ; but at the same 
time he ought to be sensible, that nothing can 
be either profitable or expedient if it is dis- 
honest. The man who is ignorant of this can- 
not be a good man. 

When I was a boy, I have heard my father tell 
how Fimbria, a man of consular dignity, was 
upon the trial* of Marcus Lutatius Pinthia, a 
Roman knight of very fair character, who was 
liable to forfeit his deposit,*)* unless a verdict 

■ t Upon the trial.'] Orig. Judicem fuisse. The reader may 
perceive how very tender I am in translating the word judex, 
which I have already observed, signified in Cicero's time no 
other than a juryman j and this story in some measure con- 
firms my observation which is founded upon a plenitude of 
other proofs j because, had Fimbria been sole judge, his de- 
clining to give any judgment would have put a stop to the 
course of justice] but as their verdict was concluded by the 
plurality of voices, and as any single judex or juryman had a 
liberty of not delivering his opinion, Fimbria might very well 
do what Cicero says he did. 

t Deposit} In cases of law-suits, both parties made a 
sponsio or deposit in the hands of the high-priest, and while 
it remained there it was called a sacramentum ; and the money 
of the losing party was detained by the priest for sacred uses, 
that is, I suppose, for the use of himself and the fraternity. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 223 

went for him, " that he was a good man." But 
Fimbria refused to join in any verdict, lest by 
giving it against Pinthia, he should ruin the 
character of a man of reputation ; or, by giving 
it in his favour, he should seem to pronounce 
any man to be a good man, a character that is 
made up of such an infinity of duties, and ex- 
celling qualities. Fimbria, therefore, as well as 
Socrates, formed his idea of a good man upon 
his being incapable of thinking any thing to be 
profitable, that was not virtuous. Such a man, 
far from presuming to commit, will not even 
think of a thing that he dares not publicly avow. 
Is it not, therefore, scandalous that philosophers 
should differ in a matter that is clear to peasants, 
who on this occasion have invented a well-known 
old proverb. For when they want to praise any 
man for his sense, sincerity, and virtue, they say, 
that you may venture to " play with him in the 
dark at odd and even ;"* a proverb that can have 
no other meaning than that nothing can be pro- 
fitable that is immoral, even though we could 
attain to it without the least check. You may 
therefore perceive that, according to this pro- 
verb, we are neither to suffer Gyges to make 
use of his ring, nor the other whom I mentioned 

* Odd and even.'] Orig. Qui cum in tenebris mices. This 
is a diversion still frequent in Italy, and is no other than one 
holding two or three fingers above the head of another, who 
was to guess at the numbers. 



224 CICERo's OFFICES. 

a few lines above of the snapping of his fingers, 
in order to make himself general heir to all 
estates. For as that which is disgraceful, let it 
be ever so secret, never can be rendered honest, 
so whatever is not virtuous never can be ren- 
dered profitable ; because it would be a flat con- 
tradiction to the nature of things. 

XX. Now the greatness of the reward is often 
a source of immorality. When Caius Marius 

¥ 

had lost all hopes of the consulship, and had 
• a$ passed seven years after his prsetorship without 

any public notice being taken of him, and with- 
out his making any dispositions to stand for the 
consulship ; he was sent by that great general 
and patriot, Quintus Metellus, whose lieutenant 
he was, to Rome, where he accused his general 
to the people of protracting the war; telling 
them that if they would make him consul he 
would in a short time surrender Jugurtha either 
alive or dead into the power of the Roman 
people. It is true, he thereby obtained the 
consulship, but at the expense of his honour and 
honesty, by wrongfully impeaching the character 
of his own general, a great and a wise citizen 
whose lieutenant he was, and who had charged 
him with the commission he was to execute at 
Rome. 

Neither did our kinsman Marius Graditianus 
act quite like an honest man in his praetorship, 
when the tribunes of the commons applied to 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 225 

the college of praetors for a general regulation, fM* 
to fix the standard of money which was at that 
time so uncertain and fluctuating that no man 
knew what he was worth. They therefore with 
common consent drew up an edict, allowing a 
trial and a penalty in case of conviction ; and 
they appointed to meet all in a body in the after- 
noon at the rostrum : upon which they separated 
some one way and some another. But Marius 
went directly to the people who were assembled 
before the rostrum, and by himself declares the 
result of their joint deliberations ; which let me 
tell you got him great favour ; his statues were 
erected at every turning of a street, perfumes 
and incense blazed before them, in short never 
was there a man more popular. 

Such are the considerations that sometimes 
embarrass mankind in deliberating upon their 
duty, when the violation of it appears to them 
but slight, but great profit is to result from it. 
Thus Marius thought there was no great harm 
done in prepossessing the people in favour of 
himself, and engrossing that popularity that 
ought to have been in common with his col- 
leagues and the tribunes of the commons. He 
knew that it would greatly favour his preten- 
sions to the consulship which he was then 
aiming at. But there is a general rule to which 
I would have you familiarize yourself; and that 
is, either be sure that the profitable considera- 
te 









226 CICERO's OFFICES. 

tion be not disgraceful, or if it be disgraceful, 
never think it "profitable. For how can we 
think either the one or the other Marius a man 
of virtue ? Recollect, and put to work all your 
understanding that you may figure in your own 
mind the picture and idea of a good man. Will 
that idea correspond with a man's lying, slan- 
dering, anticipating, and misleading for his own 
profit? By no manner of means. Can any 
consideration be so important, can any profit 
be so desirable as to induce you to forfeit the 
glory and the character of being a man of virtue ? 
Can an imaginary interest bring us a recom- 
pense equivalent to what it takes away, if it 
robs us of our good name, if it forfeits our ho- 
nour and our honesty ? For where is the differ- 
ence between a man's changing himself into the 
form of a beast, and his carrying about with him 
the insensibility of a brute in the form of a man ? 
XXI. Again ; the man who disregards all 
rectitude,* all simplicity of heart for the attain- 

* Rectitude, ,] Orig; Omnia recta et honesta. Doctor 
Cockman translates this tf all justice and honesty." But I 
can't help thinking that there is a meaning in the words of our 
author that is not expressed by the Doctor's translation. For 
what he blames in Pompey is not a gross disregard of all 
justice and honesty, but his neglecting that delicacy of con- 
duct which is dictated by the simplicity and sincerity of in- 
tention j or the rectum and the honestum. There was no 
disregard of honesty expressed by Pompey in marrying Caesar's 
daughter, there was nothing blameable in it but the concealed 
intention. 



CICERO's OFFICES. 227 

ment of power, does the same as a certain per- 
son did, who chose for his father-in-law, a man 
whose audacious presumption was to strengthen 
his power. He thought it a convenient measure 
if he could increase his own interest at the ex- 
pense of another man's unpopularity ; without 
regarding how disgraceful, how ineffectual this 
was, and how detrimental to his country. As to 
the father-in-law, he had always in his mouth 
two Greek lines taken from the Phsenissae of 
Euripides, which I here translate, inelegantly 
perhaps, hut intelligibly : 

In all things else he honest j but the prize 
Of sovereign power dissolves the moral ties. 

It was a bold stroke* in Eteocles, or rather in 
Euripides, who excepted out of the rank of 
vices, that very vice which of all others is the 
most abominable. 

Why then do I dwell upon trifling matters, 
such as fraudulent successions, bargains, and 
sales ? Here is an instance of a man who wished 
to be the monarch of Rome and the master of 
the world and succeeded in his wish : but should 
any man pronounce that to be an honest wish, I 

* Bold stroke.] Orig. Capitalis. Doctor Cockman translates 
this expression by the word villanous, but neither the original 
nor the sense will bear it. Shakespeare cannot be deemed a 
villain for making a villain of I ago. The word Capitalis, un- 
less joined to Causa, does necessarily carry a villanous idea, 
for it may be taken as T have translated it, and then Cicero is 
guilty of no absurdity. 

«}2 



228 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

will pronounce that man to be a madman. For 
in fact he justifies the ruin of law and liberty, 
and rejoices in their being flagitiously and exe- 
crably destroyed. But should any one confess 
that it is indeed wicked for a man to become the 
sole master of a state that always has been and 
always ought to be free, but that it would be to 
the profit of any man who could effect it, is there 
a reproof, or rather is there a reproach sharp 
enough by which I can reclaim such a man from 
so dangerous a mistake ? Immortal gods ! Is it 
possible for any man to find his advantage in the 
most horrible, the most execrable of all parricides, 
that of his country, even though the murderer 
should by his oppressed fellow-citizens be styled 
their father ? Virtue therefore must direct uti- 
lity, and in such a manner too, that though dif- 
fering in sound, they may be the same in sense. 
I so far agree* with the vulgar opinion that I 

* I so far agree.'] The original as printed in our author's 
text is, Non habeo ad Vulgi Opinionem, qua major Utilitas quam 
regnandi esse possit. Doctor Cockman translates the passage, 
" I know the common people are apt to imagine that nothing 
in the world can be better than to govern." But I think this 
scarcely expresses our author's meaning ; nor do I conceive 
that a translator is at liberty to reject a common reading, 
though it may be somewhat perplexed, and though in order to 
remove that perplexity some copyists of the text have altered 
it (as is the case here) so as to agree with their sense of the 
words. The manner in which I have translated this passage 
is uncommon, but it is defensible even according to the com- 
mon reading, Ad Vulgi Opinionem non habeo fsubintellige Uti- 



cicjero's OFFICES. 229 

think nothing can be more beneficial than the 
exercise of absolute power may be ; but then 
when I examine the matter according to the 
standard of truth, I find that nothing can be 
more unprofitable to the man who has acquired th^o 
it through unjustifiable means. For how is if^T* 
possible for any man to find his account in 
pangs, agonies, alarms by day and night, while 
the whole of his life is full of nothing but con- 
spiracies and dangers. 

Many, a monarch's throne betray, 
And few are loyal to his sway. 

says Accius ; but what throne does he mean ? 
Even a kingdom that descended in a lawful 
lineage from Tantalus and Pelops. But how 
many more will betray a throne that has been 
erected by an army of the Roman people upon the 
ruins of the Roman liberties, and had enslaved 
a state that before was not only free, but the mis- 
tress of nations. What a gloom must concience 
throw over the mind of such a man ? What 
stings must he feel ? For where can be the be- 

litatem) qua possit esse major Utilitas quam Utilitas regnandi. 
This sense naturally and easily contrasts with what follows, 
and gives quite a different turn to the sentiment, which other- 
wise becomes jejune and trite. Cicero does not inveigh 
against all absolute power in government, for that would be 
absurd, because it was admitted into the Roman constitution 
in its freest times, as in the case of the dictatorship, but he 
abuses Julius Caesar for acquiring the dictatorship in the 
manner he did. 



230 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

nefit of life, if a man holds it upon such terms, 
that to take it away becomes a meritorious 
and a glorious action. If, therefore, things 
that appear the most beneficial are in reality 
not so, because they are accompanied by dis- 
grace and dishonesty, it seems to be abundantly 
evident that nothing can be beneficial but what 
is virtuous. 

XXII. Meantime, this point has been several 
times determined by our senate especially during 
the war with Pyrrhus, when Fabricius was 
general, and in his second consulship. For after 
Pyrrhus without any provocation had declared 
war with the people of Rome, who thereby were 
to fight for dominion with a monarch of high 
blood and great power, a deserter from him 
came into the camp of Fabricius and promised 
that if Fabricius would reward him he would 
go back as he came privately, and kill Pyrrhus 
with poison. But Fabricius carefully sent him 
back to Pyrrhus ; for which he was highly ap- 
plauded by the senate. Now if we are to regard 
only the show and the appearance of utility, this 
single deserter would have at once put an end 
to a dangerous war, and a powerful enemy of 
their empire. But the disgrace would have 
been deep and indelible had they conquered the 
man with whom they had a contest for glory, 
by wickedness and not by valour. 

Which therefore was most profitable ? For 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 231 

Fabricius who in Rome was the same that Aris- 
tides was at Athens, and a senate that never se- 
parated utility from dignity, to encounter their 
enemy with arms or with poisons ? If glory is 
our motive for courting empire, away with all 
wickedness, for wickedness has no fellowship 
with glory. But if we are to court power by 
any means, power never can avail us, if it is 
attended with infamy. Unavailing therefore was 
the opinion of Lucius, son to Quintus Philippus, 
for again rendering tributary those states that 
Sylla for a sum of money had made free by- 
consent of the senate, and that too without re- 
paying the money they had advanced for their 
freedom. The senate indeed came into his 
opinion, to the disgrace of our government, for 
robbers are more to be trusted than such a senate. 
Our revenue was improved. Was it therefore a 
profitable measure ? How long will men dare 
to say that any thing can be profitable that is 
not virtuous ? 

For is it possible that detestation and infamy 
can be profitable to any government that ought 
to be founded upon glory and the affections of 
our allies ? My friend Cato and I, therefore, 
used to differ upon this head ; for I thought 
him too inflexible an advocate for the treasury 
and the revenue. The farmers could gain no- 
thing from him, and our allies very little ; though 
we ought to be kind to the latter, and to treat 



232 CICERO^ OFFICES. 

the former as we would our tenants ; and the 
rather because that good correspondence between 
the two orders which I then recommended 
was beneficial* to the public, It was likewise a 
wrong maxim in Curio, while he approved of 
the equity of the petition of the people beyond 
the Po, to add always, let profit take place. He 
ought to have said, it is not equitable,-)- because 

* Was beneficial.'] Orig. Ilia Ordinum Conjunctio ad Sala- 
tem Reipublicce Pertinebat. Doctor Cockman translates this, 
" All the safety and welfare of the republic depends upon 
the agreement of the several orders hi it." But that is not 
the meaning of our author, who by the word ilia plainly 
enough alludes to a well known fact, viz, that he endeavoured 
before the late revolution, to oppose it by uniting the order of 
the knights with that of the senate, which Cato prevented by 
his severity, and thereby made a breach by which all the pub- 
lic calamities entered. The fact alluded to, is very fully laid 
down by him in his Epistles to Atticus. 

f It is not equitable.'] The original by the common reading 
runs thus : Potius diceret non esse cequam, quia non esset utilis 
Reipublicte quam cum utilis esse diceret , non esse cequam fateretur. 
Graevius, and Doctor Cockman, both able men, have under- 
stood this in a quite different light from that in which I have 
translated it. Graevius thinks that in express disagreement with 
all manuscripts and books, the original ought to run thus : 
Potius diceret non esse ulilem Reipublicce, quia'non esset aqua, 
quam cum utilem esse diceret, non esse cequam fateretur ; and 
the reason he gives for this alteration is extremely plausible. 
Curio says he admitted the measure to be equitable, but was 
against it because it was not profitable} therefore Cicero 
thinks he ought to have said, ' let equity prevail, though profit 
be against it j' for when equity and profit differ, equity ought 
to take place. Doctor Cockman translates it in the same sense. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 233 

it is not profitable to the state, rather than by 
admitting it to have been profitable, to imply 
that it might not be equitable. 

XXIII. The sixth book of Hecato concerning 
duties, is full of questions of this kind. Whether 
it is the part of a good man not to maintain his 
slaves during a very great dearth of provisions ? 
He takes both sides of the question. But after 
all he measures his duty by what he mistakes 
for utility,* rather than by humanity. He 

As I am very unwilling to admit a variation, if the un- 
doubted reading can be retained, I have examined this pas- 
sage, and cannot admit that Curio voted or spoke against this 
measure, because it was unprofitable. I am rather of opinion 
that Cicero blames him for giving so bad a reason for his 
voting for it as that of utility, when he might have given a 
much better, that of equity. For our author having again and 
again inculcated, that true utility and equity are inseparable, 
says, that if Curio had found the measure to have been detri- 
mental to the state, he ought boldly to have pronounced it to 
be unjust : but it was wrong for him to put his speaking for 
it upon the footing of utility only, as if that consideration 
ought to have overborne all equity. 

* Utility.] Orig. Utilitate putat Offieium dirigi magis quam 
Humanitate. I cannot think that Doctor Cockman has trans- 
lated this passage rightly. His words are, " But at last con- 
cludes, that he should rather be guided by his interest than 
humanity." This gives us a shocking idea. But the meaning 
of Hecato, according to Graevius is, that the consideration of the 
good of a man's wife, children, relations, and himself, ought 
to be his rule in this case, and that he ought to take care they 
should not suffer, by his giving to his slaves what they may 
want to support their lives. In this sense the Utilitas that 



234 CICERo's OFFICES. 

examines the case, whether when something 
must be thrown into the sea, one ought to throw 
into it a horse of price, or a worthless little 
slave? Interest inclines him to the one side, 
humanity to the other. Whether if a fool has 
in a shipwreck got a plank, a wise man may take 
it from him if he can ? He is for the negative, 
because the taking it would be unjust. But 
supposing the owner of the ship to come, may 
not he seize upon what is his own? By no 
means, answers Hecato : no more than if he 
should order one of the passengers to be thrown 
out of the ship into the sea, because the ship 
is his own. The reason is, till he comes to the 
place for which the ship is freighted, the ship 
is not the property of the owner, but of the 
passengers. 

Again, supposing the two persons shipwrecked 

Cicero mentions here, is no other than one humane con- 
sideration attended by a prudential consideration, opposed to 
a humane consideration without a prudential one. But I own 
I am not pleased with this sentiment, chiefly because it is too 
laboured. 

But it is surprising that Doctor Cockman should have 
mistaken our author's meaning here, since he himself in his 
Latin edition of this piece, mentions some of the best 
manuscripts at Oxford, that read the whole of the passage 
Utilitate, ut putat Officium dirigit ; and Gronovius the younger 
says, that all the old editions, and almost all the manuscripts, 
preserve this reading, which makes the sense clear and con- 
sistent with the whole tenour of Cicero's reasoning upon the 
Utilitas (see the last note), and I have translated it accordingly. 



CICEIlo's OFFICES. 235 

to have got hold of one plank, both of them 
equally wise, are both to tug for it, or is the one 
to resign it to the other? Let one of them 
resign it, if that other's life is more valuable 
either in a public or a private capacity. But ^ ^Im^l, 
supposing them to be equal in both these 
respects, what then ? Why then there can be 
no debate upon the matter, and whoever resigns 
it, the thing must be looked upon as a mere 
chance, and a toss up at odds or evens. Sup- .^CU^A 
posing one's father to pillage temples and AaJl* 
undermine the exchequer : is the son to lodge 
an information against him with the magistrates ? 
It would be unnatural in him if he did. No, he 
ought rather to defend his father if he is im- 
peached. Is not our country then to have the 
preference in all our duties ? By all manner of 
means. But it is for the service of every 
country, that children be affectionate towards 
their parents. Supposing a father shall design 
to seize the government, and to betray his 
country, is the son to be silent? Why he is in 
that case, to beg his father not to proceed ; if he 
cannot prevail, he is to reproach him ; he is 
even to threaten him. At last, if the matter 
points to the ruin of his country, he is to prefer 
the safety of his country to that of his father. 

Hecato likewise inquires, whether if a wise 
man should unwittingly take in payment bad 
money for good, is he to pay it to a third hand 



236 cicero's OFFICES. 

V* 

1 for good money, after he knows it to be bad ? 
Diogenes is for the affirmative, but Antipater, 
and I think with more reason, for the negative. 
If a man is about to sell wine that he knows 
will not keep, is he to discover it ? Diogenes 
thinks he is not obliged to do it; Antipater 
thinks he cannot be an honest man if he does 
not. These are what we may call disputable prin- 
ciples amongst the Stoics. In selling a slave 
you are to tell his faults (I don't only mean 
those, that if you do not tell them, will throw 
him back upon your hands), but whether he has 
a hankering after lying, pilfering, gaming, or 
drinking. Some think that they all ought to 
be told ; others that they need not. Whether 
if a man should offer a lump of gold to sell, 
thinking it to be copper, the buyer is in con- 
science obliged to tell him that it is gold ; else, 
he may buy for one crown that which may be 
worth a thousand ? You may now have a clear 
notion both of my opinion and of the matters 
in dispute between the philosophers I have 
mentioned. 

XXV. Whether are we always to observe 
those agreements and promises which we make 
neither through constraint, nor misled (to use 
the praetor's term) by fraud and cunning ? For 
instance: supposing a man gives another a 
remedy for a dropsical disorder, but upon this 
condition, that' if it shall cure him, he is never 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 237 

to make use of it again. Some years after he 
falls ill of the same disorder, without being 
able to prevail with the person who gave him 
the medicine, to grant him leave to use it again. 
What is the patient to do in this case ? Why, 
as the other is so inhuman and so obstinate 
in his refusal, and as he cannot receive any 
detriment by the patient using the remedy, the 
latter is to take care of his own health and life. 

Farther : supposing a wise man were to be 
required by another who makes him his heir, 
and leaves him seven or eight thousand pounds, 
that before he touches a farthing of it, he shall 
publicly and at broad noon-day dance in the 
forum, and the person agrees to do it as being 
the only condition by which he can enjoy the 
legacy. Is he to perform his promise, or is he 
not ? I think it would have been better and 
more suitable to the character of a wise man, if 
he had not made the promise ; but as he did 
make it, he will by touching none of the money, 
break it with a better grace than he can keep it ; 
unless the money were to be applied to do some 
important service to the public in its distress, so 
that it would be no disgrace for him even to 
dance, since the end was to assist his country, ^w* 

XXVI. Neither indeed are all those promises 
to be kept that are not for the advantages of the pt** 
party to whom they are made. To give another 
instance from mythology : Sol promised to his 



238 CICERO's OFFICES. 

son Phaeton to do whatever he desired him to do. 
Phaeton desired to mount his father's chariot ; 
the giddy boy did mount it. and before he had 
well seated himself, he was struck dead by 
lightning. How much better would it have 
been in this case, for the father not to have kept 
his promise ? Again, when The^us obtained a 
promise from Neptune, what was the con- 
sequence ? After Neptune had promised to 
indulge him in three wishes, he wished for the 
death of his son Hippolitus, whom he suspected 
of incontinency with his step-mother; and 
being gratified in his wish, it threw him into the 
most dreadful agonies. 

What shall we say to Agamemnon's vow, who 
promised Diana the most beautiful mortal that 
was born for a certain year in his kingdom, and 
in consequence of that vow sacrificed to her his 
daughter Iphigenia. Had he better not have 
fulfilled his promise, than to have committed 
so horrid an action ? Promises therefore, are 
sometimes not to be kept ; neither are deposits 
always to be returned. Should a man in his 
senses entrust you with his sword, and when he 
is out of them, demand it back ; in this case to 
return it is a crime, not to return it is a duty. 
Supposing again that a man deposits money in 
your hands, and then becomes an enemy to 
your country, are you to return the deposit? 
By no means. For if you do, you act against 



CICERo's OFFICES. 239 

your country, which ought to be your dearest 
consideration. Thus many things that naturally 
are honest, occasionally become dishonest. It 
is dishonest to perform promises, to stand to a 
bargain, to return a deposit, when the pur- 
poses they were to serve when they were made 
are reversed. 

I think I have said enough concerning those 
ol ,'ec's that carry an appearance of profit under 
a mask of wisdom, though contrary to honesty. 
But as I in the first book derived the moral 
duties from four sources of virtue, I shall, in 
pursuance of that plan, show that all objects 
which are seemingly profitable, are really not 
so, if they are inconsistent with virtue, We 
have already discoursed of that cunning that 
seeks to pass for prudence ; and of honesty or 
justice, which always is profitable. It remains 
now, that I treat of two divisions of moral duty, 
the first consisting in the well principled great- 
ness of a virtuous mind ; the other in adapting 
and guiding our lives acccording to the rules of 
integrity and moderation. 

XXVI. It is pretended by dramatic poets 
(for I find nothing of it in the noble poems of 
Homer) that Ulysses thought it would be for his 
advantage to pretend* madness, because he 
wanted to be excused from serving in the ex- 
pedition against Troy. This was a dishonest 

* Pretend.] Orig. Insimulant. Simulatione. 



240 CICERO's OFFICES. 

purpose. But (it may be said by some) it was 
for his advantage to reign and to indulge himself 
in Ithica with his parents, his wife, and his son, 
and can you imagine that the glory which is 
acquired by incessant toils and dangers, is 
comparable to such a life of tranquillity ? If I 
am asked this question, my reply is that I think 
such a life of tranquillity is mean and despicable, 
because I think that nothing that is dishonest can 
ever be advantageous. 

Had Ulysses persevered in his dissimulation, 
what reproaches must he have undergone, when 
after all the glorious exploits he performed, he 
met with the following from Ajax : 

The chief, you know it, who proposed the oath 

Is the sole chief, who perjured through his sloth, 

That crime to cover, madness did pretend, 

And had completed his inglorious end j 

But Palamedes' sagacious eye beheld 

His perjured craft, and dragged him to the field.* 

Now he ought to have chosen to fight, not only 
his enemy, but with the waves, as was his case 
afterwards, rather than have deserted from the 
common cause of all the Greeks, who were con- 
federates in a war against the barbarians. 

But let us have done with fables and foreigners, 

* Field.] These verses are probably from a play of Pacu- 
vius concerning the contest for the arms of Achilles between 
Ajax and Ulysses. The story here alluded to, was Ulysses 
counterfeiting himself mad in order to evade his going upon 
the expedition. But he was discovered by Palamedes. 



ClCERo's OFFICES. 241 

that we may come to a real fact, and that too per- 
formed by a countryman of our own. Marcus 
Attilius Regulus, when he was consul for asecond 
time, being taken prisoner by Xantippus a La- 
cedaemonian captain (Hamilcar, the father of 
Hannibal, commanding in chief), was sent to the 
Roman senate upon his oath that if certain 
noble Carthagenian prisoners were not given up, 
he should return to Carthage. When he came 
to Rome he saw indeed the appearance of ad- 
vantage, but as his conduct declared he judged 
it to be a false appearance. Here it was in his 
power to remain in his native country to live at 
home with his wife and family, and looking 
upon the misfortune of his defeat and captivity 
as only the fate of war, to have returned to the 
exercise of the consular dignity. Can all those 
be denied to be happy circumstances? How 
say you ? I say that magnanimity and courage 
will think they are not. Can you desire autho- (jjjX 
rities of greater weight ? 

XXVII. For the properties of those virtues 
are to fear nothing; to look down upon all 
transitory considerations ; and to think that 
nothing can happen in life so bad but that it 
may be borne. How then did Regulus act? 
Why, he came to the senate, he laid before them 
what he had in charge, he refused to conceal* bis 

* Refused to conceal.] I can not help doubting the propriety 
of Doctor Cockman's translation, or rather reading, of this 



242 CICERO^ OFFICES. 

own opinion, but said that while he was bound to 
the enemy by oath he was no senator. He even 
went so far (what a fool, say some, and what an 
enemy he was to himself!) as to deny that it 
was for the benefit of the public to deliver up 
the captives ; because they consisted of young 
men and able officers ;* but that he was now 
worn out by old age. His opinion prevailed ; 
the prisoners were detained ; he himself returned 
to Carthage without being stopped by the endear- 
ments of his country, his family, and his friends ; 
and all this while he knew that he was returning 
to an inhuman enemy and a tormenting death ; 
but he thought that he must keep his oath. For 
this reason, even at the time when he was put to 
death by being kept from sleep,| he was less to 

passage. Orig. Sententiam ne diceret, recusavit. Which he 
translates, " He refused to give his own vote in the case." 
But I understand Cicero to mean that though being a captive, 
he could not give his suffrage as a senator, yet that he was not 
debarred from speaking his opinion : which we see in fact he 
does though possibly the senators would have persuaded him 
not to do it for fear of exasperating the Carthagenians. This 
translation is countenanced by one or two of the manuscripts 
consulted and quoted by the Doctor himself. 

* Able officers.] Orig. Illos enim Adolescentes, esse et bonos 
Duces. I cannot see the reason why Doctor Cockman has 
translated this passage, " That they were young men and 
might make able leaders." It certainly is much better sense 
as the original stands, and the reasoning of Regulus is much 
stronger. 

f Kept from sleep.} We are told that he was shut up in a 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 243 

be pitied than if he had lived at home an old 
captive and perjured consular. " But what a 
fool was he (it may be said), not only to give his 
opinion against delivering them up, but per- 
suaded the senate to detain them." How a 
fool ? Supposing that thereby he served his 
country. And can any thing be profitable for 
an individual that is against the interest of the 
whole. 

XXVIII. When men separate profit or expe- 
diency from virtue they confound the very fun- 
damental principles of nature. Because we all 
of us pursue what is profitable for us ; we are 
impelled to it ; and it is impossible for us to do 
otherwise. For where is the man who declines 
what is profitable for himself ? Or rather who 
does not eagerly pursue it ? But as nothing can 
ever be profitable but what is consistent with 
glory, with gracefulness, and with virtue, we 
therefore look upon those as being the chief and 
the highest considerations in life, and understand 
the word profit or expediency as a matter that is 
more necessary than glorious. 

Here some one may say, " And what mighty 
matter is there in an oath ? Do we fear the 
vengeance of Jove in wrath ? No ; it is an 
agreed principle with all philosophers (not only 
of those who say that the godhead has no con- 
small machine stuck all round with sharp spikes, after his eye- 
lids were cut off; and kept there till he died. 

r2 



244 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

cern about any thing, nor expects that any other 
being- will trouble itself about any object, but 
even of those who think that the godhead is for 
ever acting or contriving somewhat) that he never 
is angry or mischievous. But suppose he is, 
could Jupiter even in a passion have hurt Regulus 
more than Regulus hurt himself? It was not 
therefore any religious scruple that made him 
forego so great an interest. Was it for fear of 
doing a disgraceful thing ? In the first place, of 
two evils we are to choose the least. Now 
whether was there most evil in breaking his 
oath or in suffering the torments he endured ?'■ 
We are likewise to consider what Accius says, 
' Have you not broke your promise ?; The 
answer is, ' I neither gave it nor do I give it to 
any traitor/ For though this was spoke by a 
wicked king, yet there is great reason in it. 

To this they add, " That, as we maintain that 
some things appear to be profitable without 
being really so, so some things appear to be vir- 
tuous that are not virtuous. For instance there 
was an appearance of virtue in Regulus return- 
ing to be tormented that he might keep his 
oath. But in fact it was dishonest ; because he 
ought not to have performed a promise that was 
forcibly extorted from him by an enemy. They 
go no farther, and say that when a thing is ex- 
tremely profitable it becomes virtuous though it 
appeared otherwise before." So much for the 



CICERo's OFFICES. 245 

arguments against the conduct of Regulus, let 
us now examine them as they stand. 

XXIX. " We are not say they, to be afraid 
that Jupiter will do us any hurt in a fit of passion, 
because he has in his nature neither anger nor 
harm." Now this argument holds equally 
against the performance of any oath, as against 
the conduct of Regulus. But in the case of an 
oath we are not to regard the penalty but the 
obligation. For an oath is a religious affirm- 
ation. Now whatever you promise affirmatively 
calling God as it were to witness it, ought to be 
observed. The question therefore does not re- 
late to the resentment of the gods, for in fact 
they have no passions but to the obligations of 
justice and truth. For it is a fine exclamation in 
Ennius : 

Fair pinioned* truth ! thou oath of mighty Jove ! 

* Fair pinioned.] Orig. Fides alma, apta pinnis, 8s jusju- 
randum Jovis ! It sems the statue of truth, like most of the 
other moral deities had wings to denote its excellence. 

The whole of our author's doctrine here is perhaps too 
sublime for human imperfection ; for though he supposes that 
Jupiter does not trouble himself about the punishment of 
perjury, though he is invoked to be witness to the oath (the 
propriety of which is not very clearly explained by our au- 
thor), yet he supposes that the crime is punished by the very 
commission of it. I cannot however from the passage that 
is before us, help thinking that the old Romans here spoken of 
believed in providence, and the distribution of rewards and 
punishments in this life, for we see that they put the statue 
of truth by the side and under the protection of their great- 
est god. 



246 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

The man therefore who violates an oath vio- 
lates truth, whose image, as Cato tells us, in an 
oration, was placed by our ancestors in the 
capitol next to that of Jupiter, the best and the 
greatest. 

But it was said " That Jupiter would not have 
hurt Regulus more than Regulus hurt himself." 
That is true, if pain is the only evil we can en- 
dure. But philosophers upon the strongest 
grounds* affirm that pain so far from being the 
greatest evil, is no evil at all. I therefore beg 
that you will not disregard the example of 
Regulus, who is no indifferent, perhaps the most 
weighty evidence of this truth. For what more 
unquestionable evidence can we have than that 
of one of the rulers of Rome, who voluntarily 
chose to suffer a tormenting death that he might 
not depart from his duty ? As to their argument, 

*• Strongest grounds.] Orig. Maxima Auctoritate Philosophi 
affirmant; quorum quidem Testem non mediocrem, sed hand 
scio an gravissimum, Regulum nolite, quaso, vituperare. Doctor 
Cockman translates this passage,, "If we may credit some of 
the chief philosophers, among whom I pray you let Regulus be 
counted of no small authority 5 if I may not rather say of the 
greatest and most weighty." But I cannot be of opinion that 
this comes up to our author's sense. Philosophi, magna Autho- 
ritate, is not usual with our author in the sense the Doctor 
takes the expression. Authoritas signifies an indecisive opi- 
nion and is borrowed from the practice of the senators, whose 
Auctoritas (though of great weight) was indecisive on account 
of some interposition of the great magistrates who hindered it 
from being decisive. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 247 

" That of two evils to choose the least," — they 
can mean nothing else by it, than that dishonesty 
is preferable to calamity. But can there be a 
greater evil than dishonesty ? If bodily de- 
formity disgusts us, how shocking ought to be 
the deformity and pollution of a dishonest mind ? 
They therefore who have handled this subject 
with the greatest strictness, venture to call 
nothing an evil, but dishonesty, and they who 
discourse less severely, readily admit it to be the 
greatest evil. As to their argument from the 
poet, " I neither gave nor do I give my promise 
to a traitor," he has put it very properly into the 
mouth of Atreus whose character it suits. But 
if we lay it down as a principle, that no faith is 
to be kept with a traitor, let them take care that 
they do not open an inlet for perjury. 

Even war has its laws, and an oath is inviolably 
to be kept to an enemy ; therefore whatever 
is sworn ought to be kept according to the con- 
struction that conscience* puts upon the words 

* Conscience.'] The morality of Cicero in his doctrine of 
oaths^has been very much questioned,, and his expression here 
in the original is not a little obscure, Quod enim itajuratum est 
ut Mens conciperet fieri oportere, id servandum est : Quod 
aliter ; id si non feceris, nullum est Perjurium. Now in the 
first place it seems a little absurd to suppose that the meaning 
of the person to -whom the oath is given should be the rule for 
the performance of it 5 because that person may have a secret 
meaning, as well as the person who takes the oath. Doctor 
Cockman in order to avoid this absurdity, translates the whole 



248 



CICERO S OFFICES, 



of the oath ; but you are to mind that alone ; 
for all other constructions may be disregarded 
without being guilty of perjury. For example,* 

of the passage thus. (t For whatever you swear, for example, 
in such a manner as that all your conscience tells you it ought 
to be done, you are bound most inviolably to perform it." 
But this translation I am afraid makes our author guilty of a 
still greater absurdity, by making the conscience of the taker 
of the oath the rule of its performance. Every body knows 
how apt mankind are to impose upon or to deaden their con- 
sciences, by mental reservations and the like, and what wild 
unjust things conscience often prompts men to do. But in 
fact I think our author ought to be charged with neither of 
those absurdities, because he speaks neither of the Mens deffe- 
rentis, that is, the conscience of the person who administers 
the oath; nor does he say tua Mens, as Doctor Cockman 
makes him say, but he speaks of Mens in general, that is the 
general notion of right and wrong, fitness or unfitness, and 
the like, which is or ought to be in the breast of every man. 
In this sense the reasoning of our author is extremely clear 
and consistent, for it includes not only the sense in which the 
person who administers, or the person who takes the oath un- 
derstands it, but the sense in which each thinks the other un- 
derstands it, provided, that their understanding is directed by 
reason and conscience. 

* Example.'] Our author has been pretty severely handled 
by some of his greatest admirers for the position that here 
follows. Groti us after approving of the conduct of Pompo- 
nius Regulus, and other instances brought by Cicero, tells us 
that oaths not only take place amongst public enemies, Sed 
inter quos vis, ." but amongst all manner of men." The 
reason he gives for it is, Non enim Persona sola respicitur, cui 
juratur, sed is quijuratur Deus, qui adObligationem pariendam 
sufficit. " For (says he) the person to whom the oath is 
sworn, is not alone to be regarded, because our regard for God, 



CICERo's OFllCfiS. 249 

supposing that you bargained with robbers to 
give them a sum of money to save your life, and 
did not pay the money ; you will in this case 

by whom the oath is sworn, is sufficient to bind us to the 
performance of it." But this is a very bad reason with 
respect to Cicero, who puts the resentment and all regard of 
the deity quite out of the question here, and grounds the 
moral obligation entirely upon the honestum, which every man 
ought to possess within himself. 

Grotius goes on to say, " That though the law of nations 
has made a distinction between an enemy and a robber ; yet 
no such distinction can obtain here, because the question does 
not regard the man but the deity." One would be almost 
tempted to think from Grotius insisting so much upon this ob- 
jection, that he had not read or not sufficiently considered the 
context j in which Cicero admits that the deity does not mind 
us, nor regard whether we mind him or not. 

Grotius goes on, Neque id quod sumit Cicero verum est, nul- 
lam esse cum Pradone Juris Societatem. Nam Depositum ex 
ipso Gentium Jure, reddendum Latroni, si Dominus non apparet. 
That is, ' ' Nor is Cicero defensible in his assertion that by law 
we ought to have no connexion with a robber, for it is laid 
down by the very law of nature that a deposit is to be returned 
to a robber if the lawful owner does not appear 5" and for 
this, quotes Tryphonimus. As I do not intend to enter upon 
our author's defence as a casuist but as a translator, I shall 
not examine whether this opinion of Tryphonimus is right, 
but I think it is pretty plain that whether it is or not, it can- 
not affect our author's reasoning. For if the conscience of 
the man who swears to the robber, tells him that he is under 
an unlawful restraint, and that the oath were it not for that 
restraint would be unlawful, and that even the robber himself 
in his own conscience, either is or ought to be of the same 
mind, Cicero says that such an oath cannot be obligatory, 
and that the illegality of it arises from the robber's having 



250 CICERo's OFFICES. 

be guilty of no crime, even though you had 
sworn to perform it, because a robber is not to 
be counted a fair enemy ; but the common 
enemy of all mankind. Therefore no faith is 
owing to him, nor as he a right like other men 
to exact the performance of an oath : for to swear* 
r /|/ to what you do not perform is not perjury, but 

it is perjury not to perform that which you have 
sworn to- perform " according to the best of 
your conscience," for so our law-forms run. It 
is therefore very properly said by Euripides, 
" With my tongue I swore, but my mind was 
free." As to Regulus it would have been wrong 
in him as he had to do with an open and declared 
enemy, to have transgressed the laws of war 
which prevail in times of hostility, by com- 
mitting a perjury so expressly condemned by 
the fascial*)* law and many civil statutes ; other- 
wise our senate never would have delivered 
up to their enemies so many Roman citizens 

no right to impose it upon you. Whereas no such illegality 
arises from the performance of an oath given to a public 
enemy, because all public enemies stand in the same light to- 
wards one another, which is not the case between an honest 
man and a robber. 

* For to swear J] Our author's expression here is pretty 
remarkable, Non enim falsum jurare perjurare est : Sed quod 
ex Animi tut Sententia juraris, sicut Verbis concipitur More nos- 
trOy id non facere, Perjurium est. It is plain however that 
our author's meaning must be as I have translated it. 

t Facial.'] See Note p. 26. 



CICERO^ OFFICES. 25J 

of eminence, with their hands tied behind their 
backs.* 

XXX. This puts me in mind of Titus Vetu- 
riusj- and Spurius Posthumius, who in their 
second consulship were delivered up to the 
Samnites for making a peace with them without 
being warranted by the people and senate, after 
the unfortunate engagement at Caudium, where 
our troops underwent the disgrace of marching 
beneath a gibbet. At the same time Titus 
Numicius and Quintus Maelius who were then 
tribunes of the people, were likewise delivered 
up for giving their opinions in favour of 
the peace, that the obligation of it might be 
cancelled. Now Posthumius himself moved and 
spoke for this rendition, though he himself was 
one of the persons who was to be delivered up. 
The same happened many years after, to be the 
case of Caius Mancinius, who spoke earnestly 
for the bill, which by order of the senate, 
Lucius Furius and Sextus Attilius carried to the 

* Hands tied behind their backs.'] This was because they 
had concluded treaties with the enemies of their country 
which their country did not think proper to ratify, and there- 
fore they sent them back as prisoners and malefactors. 

t Titus Veturius.'] We have the whole of this story in 
Livy. It happened about the. year of Rome 433, but I am 
not casuist enough to determine whether the Romans de- 
livering up some of their general officers, sufficiently can- 
celled a treaty made under such circumstances as that of 
Caudium was. 



252 CICERO's OFFICES. 

people for delivering him up to the Numantines, 
with whom he had made a peace without war- 
rant from the senate ; and upon the people's 
passing the bill, he was accordingly delivered up 
to the enemy. This was acting more honour- 
ably than Quintus Pompeius did, whosecase was 
the very same ; but upon his humble application, 
the bill for delivering him up was rejected by 
the people. In this last instance, seeming 
utility got the better of real virtue. But in the 
other cases that I have mentioned, the show of 
utility gave way to the authority of virtue. 

But it has been said, " that Regulus ought 
not to have performed what was extorted from 
him by force/' But let me tell you, that force 
has no power over a determined mind. Why 
then it may be said, did he go to the senate, 
especially as he was resolved to speak against 
delivering up the captives ? But you censure 
the very circumstance that is most glorious in 
all his conduct, for he was not determined by 
his own opinion, but became an advocate for a 
measure upon which the senate was to deter- 
mine, and had not he himself argued for that 
measure, it is most certain that the captives 
would have been delivered back to their 
countrymen. By this means Regulus would 
have remained in honourable safety* at Rome, 

* Honourable safety. "\ Orig. Incolumis. This expression 
which Dr. Cockman has translated by the single word safe, 



CICERO^ OFFICES. 253 

but because he knew that this would not be for 
the advantage of his country, he conceived it to 
be more for his honour to speak and to suffer as 
he did. As to what we are told, M that what is 
extremely advantageous becomes virtuous." It 
must be in its present, and not in its future 
existence that it is virtuous, for nothing can be 
advantageous that is not virtuous. Nor is virtue 
the consequence of advantage, but advantage is 
the result of virtue. Upon the whole, amongst 
many wonderful instances of virtue, it will be 
hard to find one that is more glorious, or more 
excellent than this of Regulus. 

XXXI. But of all his merit in this conduct, §_&yJjjj 
the circumstance that strikes us with the greatest 
admiration, is his giving his opinion for detain- 
ing the captives. For there is nothing very 
extraordinary in his returning to Carthage, 
when we consider that in those days it was 
impossible for him to have acted otherwise; so 
that it was no merit of his, but of the age he 
lived in. For our aucestors thought there was 
no tie so obligatory to the performance of a 
promise as an oath. As a proof of this, I may 

appears from many passages in Cicero, and other classical 
authors, to imply safety with dignity, and in this sense our 
author's reasoning is more strong. For neither the Car- 
thagenians nor the Romans could have blamed Regulus. On 
the contrary he must have appeared to great advantage with 
both people, had he been for sending back the prisoners, and 
therefore the opinion he gave was the more meritorious. 






254 CICERO's OFFICES. 

appeal to the laws of the twelve tables ; I may 
appeal to the great charter* of the liberty of 
the commons ; I can appeal to those treaties 
which bind us to good faith even with an 
enemy ;* I can appeal to our censors, who in all 
the course of their cognizancest and punish- 

* Great Charter."] Orig. Sacratce. These were the laws 
which the people of Rome obtained about sixty years after 
the expulsion of kings, and which they as much considered as 
the basis of their liberties, as the people of England do their 
Magna Charta. 

f Cognizances.'] Orig. Notiones. Dr. Cockman translates 
this word punishments, but that is not precisely the meaning of 
Notio. It is a term in the civil law, and is the same with 
Notatio and Nota. It signified a power of taking cognizance 
of a matter, but without having any actual jurisdiction over it. 
This was sometimes the case with the censors, when they 
made a report to the senate of a misdemeanour, either to get 
it punished, or to get the punishment they had inflicted upon 
it confirmed. In many cases, however, they had as the 
praetor had, a Notio cum Jurisdictione, that is, both the power 
of taking cognizance, and of pronouncing sentence. We are 
farther to observe, that neither the censorial cognizance or 
punishment disabled any man from enjoining all the privileges 
of a Roman citizen, unless the same came to a legal trial, or a 
particular provision was made by the senate for that purpose. 
Cicero in his Oration for Cluentius, mentions some senators 
who had been punished by the censors, and came afterwards 
to be censors themselves, and very illustrious senators. He 
adds, in the same oration, that no man, unless brought before 
a jury which he and his antagonist agree to be tried by, could 
suffer any legal disability, or to be adjudged in one farthing 
of money which the law could oblige him to pay. I shall 
only add to this note, that, when the city prsetor, or whoever 



CICERO** OFFICES. 255 

ments never were more severe in any case than 
in that of an oath. 

After the dictatorship of Lucius Manlius, the 
son of Aulus, was expired, Marcus Pomponius, 
a tribune of the commons, brought an indict- 
ment against him for having exercised that 
office a few days longer than he ought. He was 
likewise accused of his having banished from 
the society of men his son Titus, who afterwards 
had the surname of Torquatus or the collared, 
by ordering him to live in the country. As 
soon as the young man heard that his father 
was brought into trouble on his account, we are 
told that he immediately ran to Rome, and by 
break of day was at the house of Pomponius. 

The latter being told of this visit, imagining 
that the youth out of resentment to his father, 
was come to give in some information against 
him, immediately got out of bed, and clearing 
the room of all company, he ordered Titus to 
be called in. But no sooner was the youth 
entered, then drawing his sword, he swore that 

was the judge, named the jury or the Judices that was to try 
a cause, both parties had a copy of the panel, and out of that 
a certain number was ballotted to be upon the jury. Each 
party then was allowed a challenge, and if any were objected 
to, others were ballotted in their room, and when the jury 
was agreed upon and impanelled, each of the jurymen or 
Judices were sworn to act impartially, but the praetor or the 
judge was not, he having been sworn at his entrance upon his 
office. 






256 CICERO's OFFICES. 

he would that instant put Pomponius to death, 
unless he would promise by an oath to drop the 
prosecution against his father. Pomponius 
swore this under the influence of terror; he 
laid the whole of the matter before the people, 
and telling them the necessity he was under for 
proceeding no farther, he discharged Manlius. 
So powerful in those days was an oath.* Now 
this was the Titus Manlius who acquired the 
surname of the collared, by killing a Gaul who 
had challenged him near the river Anis, and 
stripping him of his collar. In his third con- 
sulship, the Latins were routed and put to 
flight near the river Veseris. He was a very 
extraordinary person, and proved equally bar- 
barous as a father, as he had been affectionate 
as a son.j* 

* An oath.'] This is a very extraordinary story, and as it 
comes from so good authority, is very proper for the stage. 
But after our author's reasoning against keeping our oaths to 
highwaymen and pirates, I cannot think that the example of 
Pomponius proves any more for his system, than that the 
Romans were most unreasonably scrupulous in the matter of 
an oath. In the case here described, young Manlius, though 
his intention was pious and commendable, appears to be no 
better than an assassin, and as such he ought to have been 
treated. I am therefore apt to believe, that the prosecution 
was dropped, not through any regard which the people had to 
the obligation of the oath of Pomponius, but through their 
admiration of the young man's affection. 

f Sow.] He ordered his son's head to be cut off, for fighting 
and conquering without orders. 



CICERO's OFFICES. 257 

XXXII. But as Regulus is deservedly cele- 
brated for keeping his oath, so the ten Romans, 
who after the battle of Cannae were sent by 
Hannibal to the senate, after swearing to return 
to the Carthagenian camp, if they did not 
succeed in getting the prisoners ransomed ; 
they, I say, were to blame if they did not return. 
Authors differ in their relations of this fact. 
For Polybius,* an author of the highest credit, 
says, that of ten Romans, men of the greatest 
quality that were then sent, nine returned, not 
having succeeded in their commission ; but that 
the tenth (who, as if he had forgot somewhat, 
returned to the Carthagenian camp a little 
after he had left it), staid at Rome, because he 
thought that his returning to the camp freed 
him from the obligation of his oath. But in 
that he was mistaken ; for deceit instead of 
removing, aggravates perjury. This therefore 
was a foolish piece of craft, awkwardly aping 
wisdom. The senate therefore decreed, that 
this juggler, this player with an oath, should 
be sent back to Hannibal in fetters. 

But the greatest instance of all was the follow- 
ing. Hannibal made eight thousand Romans 
prisoners, but not in the field, or in the rout of 

* Polybius.'] He was a noble and a celebrated historian ; the 
friend of Scipio and of Lrelius. The greatest part of his 
history, which was written in Greek, his native language, is 
now lost. • 



258 CICERO'S OFFICES. 

the battle, for they had been left in the camp 
by the consuls, Faulus and Varro. And though 
they might have been ransomed with a trifle of 
money, yet the senate gave an opinion against 
ransoming them at all ; that our soldiers might 
hold it as a fixed principle, that they were either 
to conquer or to die. Polybius adds, that the 
report of this broke the spirit of Hannibal when 
he saw how magnanimously the Romans behaved 
in that low condition of their affairs. This may 
serve as an instance of the preference which 
virtue has over a seeming profit in the com- 
petition of duty. 

But Accilius,* who wrote a history in Greek, 
says, that several of the Romans had returned to 
the camp, in order to evade the force of their 

* Accilius.'] He was quaestor and tribune of the people, and 
wrote the Annals of Rome in Greek, which are quoted by 
Livy. It is pretty surprising there should be such jarring 
accounts of so recent a fact. For besides the two contradictory 
accounts we have here, I find another in Aulus Gellius, who 
tells us, that eight of the captives returned to Hannibal, but 
that two of them, upon the frivolous pretext of having returned 
before to the Carthagenian camp after being sworn, remained 
at Rome, and claimed the Jus PostHminii, or the protection of 
their country, for which they were severely punished by the 
censors. The same author acquaints us, that Cornelius Nepos 
gave a fourth account of the matter, and wrote that there was 
a debate in the senate about sending back those that remained 
at Rome, but that upon a division, it was carried in the nega- 
tive. He adds, however, that they who remained were so 
detestable to the public, that their lives became a burden to 
them/ and that they put themselves to death. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 259 

oath by that equivocation, and that all of them 
were branded with infamy by the censors. I 
now finish what 1 had to say upon this head ; 
for it is plain that actions proceeding from a 
cowardly, abject, mean, and dastardly spirit 
(such as the behaviour of Regulus would have 
been, had he either delivered his opinion con- 
cerning the captives according to his own 
seeming interest, and not according to that of 
his country, or had he wanted to remain 
at home), are not to be deemed profitable, 
because in fact they are wicked, disgraceful, 
and dishonest. 

XXXIII. A fourth head remains, and that 
comprehends gracefulness, moderation, modesty, 
abstinence, and temperance. Now can any 
thing be profitable that contradicts the assem- 
blage of such virtues ? Notwithstanding that 
some philosophers, who from Aristippus* were 
termed Cyrenaics, and another sect termed 
Annicerians,f have placed all good in pleasure ; 
and have been of opinion, that virtue is 
desirable, only because it is an efficient of 
pleasure. Though their doctrine is now out 
of date, yet that of Epicurus is in vogue, who 
is, as it were, the supporter and maintainer of 

* Aristippus.'] This philosopher was born at Cyrene,, a town 
in Afric. 

j: Annicerians.'] From one Anniceris, the founder of a new 
sect of the Cyrenaics. 

s2 



260 CICERO's OFFICES. 

the same opinions. We are to encounter them 
horse and foot,* as the saying is, if we intend 
to defend and maintain the cause of virtue. 

For if, as Metrodorusj* writes, nor only 
utility, but all the requisites of a happy life, 
consist in a healthful habit of body, and a great 
probability of its continuance, then surely this 
utility, supreme as they make it, must clash with 
virtue. For in the first place, what is the post 
assigned to prudence, but to be the universal ca- 
terer of delights ? Miserable must this domestic 
of virtue be, when degraded into the slave of 
pleasure. But what properties is she to exert 
in this employment ? She is to make a judicious 
choice of pleasures ! Admitting that nothing 
can be more delightful, can any thing more 
scandalous be thought of, than such an employ- 
ment ? As to the man who thinks pain to be 
the greatest evil, what can such a man have to 
do with fortitude, which consists in despising 
pain and trouble ? For though Epicurus in 
many passages, and in this I have quoted in par- 
ticular, speaks with great spirit on the subject 
of pain, yet we are not so much to regard what 
he says, as the consequences of the principles he 
maintains when he makes all good terminate in 

* Horse and foot.'] Orig. Viris Equisque, a proverbial 
expression to signify " with all our force." 

f Metrodorusj He was the disciple and intimate friend of 
Epicurus. 



CICERo's OFFICES. 261 

pleasure, and all evil in pain. In like manner 
hear him talk of abstinence and temperance, he 
says a great many very fine things ; but, as we 
may say, he is troubled with the stranguary in 
his sentiments. For how can the praise of tem- 
perance flow freely from a man who places the 
highest good in pleasure ? Now temperance 
lays a check upon the appetite, and the appetites 
are ever upon the scent after pleasure. 

And yet they make a shift to shuffle about 
those three heads with some art. They recom- 
mend prudence as the science that furnishes 
pleasure and averts pain. They have a way of 
dressing out fortitude as the principle through 
which we despise death and endure pain. As 
to temperance they recommend it but with a 
very bad grace ; however they do as well as 
they can. For they tell us that the consum- 
mation of pleasure is the privation of pain. As 
to justice she totters or rather tumbles down, 
together with all the virtues that are practised 
either in the greater or the lesser associations of 
mankind. For they leave no room for goodness 
of heart, for generosity, for gentleness, nor 
friendship, because they tell us that those virtues 
are desirable in themselves, no farther than as 
they serve the purposes of pleasure or profit. 

XXXIV. But to come to a close. Having 
shown that no real utility can exist in opposition 
to virtue, I now maintain that all sensual pleasure 



26*1 CICERo's OFFICES* 

opposes virtue. I therefore look upon Callipho* 
and Denochus to be the more blameable when 
they thought they could solve all difficulties, by 
coupling pleasure with virtue, a brute with a 
man. Virtue resists, disdains, and repels such a 
junction, nor indeed is it possible that the su- 
preme good, which in its own nature ought to 
be simple, should be a compound and a mass of 
contradictory qualities. But I have treated of 
this subject, for it is a weighty one, at large in 
another work. 

To proceed : what I have said will be sufficient 
to instruct us how we are to be determined in 
our choice, if a seeming utility, should it at any 
time come in competition with virtue. But 
should even pleasure be said to carry the ap- 
pearance of utility, there can, I maintain it, 
be no agreement between her and virtue ; for 
though perhaps we may allow pleasure to give 
as it were a little relish to life, yet we absolutely 
deny that she ever can be attended with utility. 

You have here my son Marcus your father's 
present, and in his opinion a valuable present 
too, but the value of it to you will in a great 
measure depend upon the reception you give it. 
I insist however that these three books be 
admitted with the civility due to strangers, 
amongst the lectures of Cratippus. Had I come 

* Callipho.'] Those two philosophers coupled pleasure and 
virtue together,, in or order to constitute happiness. 



CICERO'S OFFICES. 263 

to Athens (which I would have done, had not 
the voice of my country loudly called me back 
after I had proceded halfway), you should some- 
times have attended my lectures likewise ; but 
as you receive in these books the sense of all I 
had to say, my request is that you will bestow 
upon them as much time as you can, and I know 
you can as much as you please. When 1 under- 
stand that you take delight in those studies, I will 
converse with you (as I hope soon to do) in person, 
and I will correspond with you in absence. 
Farewell, my son, and depend upon it that the 
very great affection which I now bear you, will 
be redoubled if you take pleasure in such 
writings and studies. 



THE END OF CICERo's OFFICES. 



CICERO'S PARADOXES. 



ADDRESSED TO MARCUS BRUTUS. 



I have often, my Brutus, observed, that 
your uncle Cato, when he delivered his opinion 
in the senate, handled certain important points 
of philosophy, which seemed irreconcilable 
with our practice at the bar, or in the forum ; 
yet in the course of his speaking, he managed 
them so as that they became plausible to the 
audience. Now this was a greater excellency 
in him, than it would be in you or in me, 
because we have been more conversant in that 
philosophy which encourages the variety of 
expression, and its subjects are pretty nearly 
suited with the ideas of mankind in general. 
But Cato, who as far as I can judge, was a 
complete Stoic, had notions very incompatible 
with those of the common run of mankind ; 
and was of a sect that disclaims all embellish- 
ments of speech, and never spins out an argu- 
ment. He therefore succeeded in his purpose, 



266 



CICERO S PARADOXES. 



by making use of certain pithy, and as it were, 
stimulating questions. There is, however, no- 
thing so incredible that eloquence will not 
make probable; she can give a polish to the 
roughest, and culture to the wildest subjects. 

Being thoroughly convinced of these truths, 
I have made a bolder attempt than ever Cato 
himself did. For Cato, let me tell you, when 
he treated of magnanimity, of modesty, of 
death, of virtues, all-comprehensive merits ; of 
the immortal gods, and of patriotism, used to 
dress the sentiments of Stoics in the ornaments 
of eloquence. But I have, for amusement, 
digested into common places those topics which 
the Stoics, even in their literary retirement, and 
in their schools, find difficult to prove. Such 
topics they themselves term paradoxes, on 
account of their singularity and disagreement 
with the general sense of mankind. I have 
been ambitious enough to try whether they 
might not appear abroad, I mean in the hands 
of men of business, and expressed in a manner 
that should render them convincing to the 
generality of people. And whether the language 
of learning is different from that of life. I 
undertook this with the more pleasure, because 
these very paradoxes, as they are termed, appear 
to belong chiefly to Socrates, and contain the 
most important truths of the Stoics. Please 
therefore to accept of this trifle, the product of 



N-3 
CICERo's PARADOXES. 267 

these short summer nights, since your name has 
appeared to patronize the studies of my more 
deepened hours. You have here a specimen of 
the manner I make use of, when I accommodate 
those matters, which in the schools are termed 
propositions to our oratorical character, and 
practice of speaking. I do not, however, 
expect that you will look upon yourself as 
indebted to me for this performance, which is 
unworthy of being, like the Minerva of Phidias 
amongst the Greeks, honoured with a place of 
safety and distinction; and yet it will appear 
to be done by the same hand with my former 
works. 

PARADOX I. 

VIRTUE IS THE ONLY GOOD. 

I am apprehensive that some amongst you 
may be of opinion, that this sentiment is not 
my own, but borrowed from the schools of the 
Stoics. Yet I will tell you my real opinion, and 
that too in fewer words than the importance of 
the matter requires. By heaven, I never was 
he who reckoned amongst the good and desirable 
things of life, treasures, palaces, interest, power ; 
or those pleasures to which the men of this 
world are so strongly wedded. For I have 
observed, that they who wallowed in those 
things, were the men who were in fact the most 



268 CICERO'S PARADOXES. 

eager after them : for our sensual passions are 
boundless and insatiable. They are tormented 
not only with the lust of increasing, but with 
the fear of losing what they have. I own that 
I am often at a loss to account for the good 
sense of our ancestors, those "examples of 
temperance to mankind, who affixed the appel- 
lation of good to those weak fleeting circum- 
stances of wealth, when in truth and fact their 
sentiments were the very reverse. Can a bad 
man enjoy a good thing? Or is it possible for 
a man not to be good when he lives in the very 
abundance of good things ? And yet we have 
daily instances of all those good things being 
in possession of wicked men who are enemies 
to virtue. Now if any man has a mind to 
indulge his raillery, he may with all my heart; 
but I never shall be laughed out of following 
right reason preferably to popular opinion. 
Neither shall I account a man, when he loses 
his stock of cattle, or furniture, to have lost his 
good things. So far from that, I shall take 
frequent opportunities of celebrating Bias, who, 
if I mistake not, is reckoned among the seven 
wise men. For when the enemy took possession 
of Priene, his native country, and when many 
of his countrymen in their flight, found means 
to carry off with them their effects, a friend 
advised Bias to do the same. "■ Why," answered 
he, " you see I do, for I carry with me all that 



CICERO** PARADOXES. 269 

is mine:" thereby intimating, that he did not 
esteem those playthings of fortune, which we 
term good things to be his own. But it may 
be asked, what then is a good thing. My 
answer is, that whatever is done uprightly, 
honestly, and virtuously, is done well; and 
whatever is upright, honest, and agreeable to 
virtue, that, and that alone, is a good thing. 

But when we reason abstractly, those matters 
appear somewhat obscure ; let us, therefore, as 
they are refined too much upon in the schools, 
illustrate them from the lives and actions of the 
greatest of men. Let me then ask of you, 
whether you imagine that the men who founded 
upon so noble a system, this empire, which they 
have transmitted to us, ever thought of gratifying 
avarice by money ; delight by delicacy ; luxury 
by magnificence; or pleasure by eating and 
drinking. Set before your eyes any one of 
our monarchs. Shall I begin with Romulus ? 
Or with the patriots who made and left Rome a 
free state ? By what means then did Romulus 
become a god? By those which the men of 
the world term good things? Or by his actions 
and his virtues? What! are we to imagine, 
that the wooden or earthen dishes of Numa 
Pompilius were less acceptable to the immortal 
gods, than the embossed plate of others. I shall 
say nothing of our other kings, for all of them, 
excepting Tarquin the Proud, were equally 



270 CICEllo's PARADOXES. 

excellent. Should it be asked, what did Brutus 
perform when he delivered his country? Or 
what were the motives, what were the views of 
the patriots who joined him in that glorious 
attempt? Can any man alive think, that they 
were induced by motives arising from the love 
of pleasure or of riches, or that he had any 
other view, but that of acting the part of a 
great and a gallant man ? What was the motive 
that impelled Caius Mucius without the least 
hopes of escaping death, to attempt the death of 
Porsenna? From whence sprung the power 
that rivetted Codes to the bridge, when he 
singly opposed the whole force of the enemy ? 
The power that devoted the elder, that devoted 
the younger Decius, and made them plunge 
amidst armed battalions of enemies! What 
view had Caius Fabricius for being so continent 
in his manners, or Manius Curius, when he was 
so frugal in his living ? What were the motives 
of those two thunderbolts of the Punic war, 
Publius and Cneius Scipio, when they proposed 
to form with their own bodies a barrier for their 
country against the progress of the Carthage- 
nians? What did the elder, what did the 
younger Africanus propose? What were the 
views of Cato who lived between the times of 
both? What shall I say of millions of other 
instances ; for our history abounds with such ; 
can any one think that they proposed any 



cicero's paradoxes. 271 

other object in life but what was glorious and 
noble? 

Now let the scoffers of this sentiment appear, 
let them take their choice, whether they will 
resemble the man who is rich in marble palaces, 
adorned with ivory, and shining with gold, in 
statues, in pictures, in embossed gold and silver 
plate, in the workmanship of Corinthian brass, 
or if they will resemble Fabricius, who had not, 
who disdained to have any of those luxuries. 
And yet they are readily prevailed upon to 
admit that the enjoyments which shift from 
hand to hand, are not to be ranked among 
good things, while at the same time they stiffly 
maintain, and eagerly dispute, that pleasure is 
the highest good ; a sentiment that to me seems 
to be that of a brute, rather than of a man. 
Shall you, endowed as you are by God or by 
nature, whom we may term the mother of all 
things, with a soul (the most excellent, the most 
divine being that exists), shall you, J say, be 
so mean and so abject as to think there is riO' 
difference betwixt thy nature, and that of the 
brute ? Where is that good that does not make 
him who possesses it a better man ? For as the 
man who has the greatest portion of good, has 
likewise the greatest share of merit ; neither is 
there a good on which the man who possesses 
it may not justly value himself. But does 
pleasure contain any of those qualities ? Does 



272 CICERo's PARADOXES. 

pleasure give a man better principles or greater 
merit? Where is the man of sense who 
publicly praises himself for having enjoyed 
pleasures? Now if pleasure, which has so 
many advocates in its favour, is not io be 
ranked among good things, and if the greater 
it is, the more it discomposes and disorders the 
mind; surely in life the good and happy 
things of life can mean no more than its just 
and its virtuous things. 



PARADOX II. 

A MAN WHO IS VIRTUOUS IS WITHOUT NO 
REQUISITE OF HAPPY LIFE. 

Never, for my part, did I imagine Marcus 
Regulus to have been distressed, or unhappy, or 
wretched ; because his magnanimity was not 
tortured by the Carthagenians ; the weight of 
his authority was not ; his honour was not ; his 
resolution was not ; not one of his virtues was ; 
in short, his soul did not suffer their torments, 
for a soul that was guarded and attended by 
so many virtues, never surely could be made 
captive with its body. We have seen Caius 
Marius ; he, in my opinion, was in prosperity 
one of the happiest, and in adversity one of the 
greatest of men, a character that forms the 
supreme happiness of human life. Madman, 



CICERo's PARADOXES. 273 

thou art ignorant indeed, thou art ignorant of 
virtue's force ; thou only usurpest the name of 
virtue ; but thou art a stranger to her influence. 
The man who is well composed within himself, 
who finds all he wants and wishes for within 
his own breast, never can be otherwise than 
completely happy. But the man who has no 
hope, no scheme, no foresight but what depends 
upon fortune, such a man can have no certainty, 
he can have no grounds of assurance that he 
can be master of his enjoyments for a single 
day longer. If you have any such man in 
your power, you may terrify him by threats of 
death or exile ; but whatever can happen to 
me in this my ungrateful country, I will be so 
far from opposing it, that I will embrace it. 
To no purpose have I toiled ; to no purpose 
have I acted ; vain have been my cares by day, 
and my watchings by night, if I have not yet 
learned to arrive at such a state, as that neither 
the outrages of fortune nor the injuries of 
enemies can affect me. Do you threaten me, 
Antony, with death? Why that is separating 
me from mankind. With exile? That is 
removing me from the wicked. Death is 
dreadful to the man whose all is extinct with 
his breath ; but not to him whose glory never 
can die. Exile is terrible to those who, as it 
were, stint themselves to one dwelling place ; 
but not to those who look upon the whole globe 

T 



274 cicero's paradoxes. 

but as one city. Thou happy and prosperous 
as thou thinkest thyself, art the wretch that is 
beset with wretchedness and covered with 
misfortunes. Thou art tortured by thy lusts; 
day and night thou art upon the rack ; though 
ever dissatisfied with thy own condition, yet 
thou art ever trembling lest it should not con- 
tinue ; the remembrance of thy misdeeds goads 
thy conscience; the terrors of thy country's 
laws and the dread of her justice appal your 
very soul ; look where thou wilt, thy crimes, like 
so many furies stare thee in the face and hang a 
dead weight upon thy spirit. Therefore as no 
man can be happy if he is wicked, foolish, or 
indolent; so no man can be wretched, if he is 
virtuous, brave, and wise. Glorious is the life 
of that man whose virtues and practice are 
glorious ; and no life that is attended with 
glory is to be avoided, but we ought to abhor it 
if attended with misery. We are therefore to 
look upon whatever is dignified with glory and 
with merit, to be at the same time happy, flou- 
ishing, and desirable. 

PARADOX III 

THAT ALL MISDEEDS ARE IN THEMSELVES 
EQUAL, AND GOOD DEEDS THE SAME. 

The matter it may be said is a trifle, but the 
crime is enormous ; for we are to form our esti- 



CICERo's PARADOXES. 275 

mate of guilt not from the events of things, but 
from the bad intentions of the agent. The cir- 
cumstances attending guilt may differ in their 
importance, but guilt itself in whatsoever light 
you behold it, is the same. A pilot oversets a 
ship laden with gold or one laden with straw ; 
the loss no doubt is somewhat disproportioned, 
but the blunder of the pilot is in both cases the 
same. You have debauched a woman of no 
family, — 'tis true fewer are concerned for her 
than would be had she been a young lady of 
rank and quality. Nevertheless you have been 
guilty, if it be guilty to start before the signal. 
No doubt it is ; nor does it matter in aggravation 
of the fault of starting in that manner how far 
you run afterwards ; for nothing can be more 
certain than that nobody has a right to commit 
a fault. Now, if one has no right to do a thing', 
that very circumstance convicts him of guilt if 
he does it. If this guilt can receive neither ad- 
dition nor diminution (because, if the thing was 
against right, there was a fault in the commission, 
and a fault is perpetually and invariably a fault), 
then all the consequences and circumstances 
attending it must be equal. Now if virtues are 
equal amongst themselves, it must necessarily 
follow that vices are so likewise ; and nothing is 
more easy than to prove that a man cannot be 
better than good, more temperate than temperate, 
braver than brave, nor wiser than wise. Will 

t2 



276 CICERO's PARADOXES. 

any man call a person honest, who having a 
deposit of ten pounds of gold made into his 
hands, without any witness, so that he can be in 
no danger of detection, shall account for every 
farthings worth of it, and yet should not behave 
in the same manner were the sum ten thousand 
pounds ? Can a man be accounted temperate 
who checks one inordinate passion and gives a 
loose to another ? Virtue is uniform, and its uni- 
formity consists in unwearied perseverance and 
agreement with reason. No addition of cir- 
cumstance can make it more than virtue. No 
diminution can render it less. If good offices 
are done with an upright intention, nothing can 
be more upright than upright is ; and therefore 
it is impossible that any thing should be better 
than what is good. It therefore follows that all 
vices are equal, for the evil affections of the 
mind are properly termed vices. Now we may 
infer, that as all virtues are equal, therefore all 
good actions being derived from virtues ought 
to be equal likewise ; and therefore it neces- 
sarily follows that evil actions springing from 
vices should be also equal. 

You borrow says one all this matter from phi- 
losophers. — I was afraid you would have told me 
that I borrow it from pimps and panders. But 
Socrates reasoned in the manner you do. — I am 
glad to hear it, for by all accounts he was a 
learned and a wise person. Meanwhile as the 



cicero's paradoxes. 277 

dispute between you and me is at present carried 
on not by blows but words, I make bold to ask 
you whether upon a subject of this kind, we are 
to take the sense of the scum and slaves of the 
earth, or that of the wisest of mankind? Espe- 
cially too as the sentiment I here lay down is 
not only as agreeable to truth, but as useful 
in life as any proposition can be. How must 
men be influenced, how must they be deterred 
from the commission of all kinds of evils, if 
they once become sensible there are no degrees 
of guilt ? That the crime is the same whether 
they offer violence to private persons or to magis- 
trates. That lust is equally criminal, whatever 
the family is which it pollutes. But here it may 
be objected ; what ? Is there no difference 
between murdering your father or your slave ? 
If this objection is to be taken simply without 
any circumstances attending it, it has its diffi- 
culties. If to deprive a parent of life is in itself 
a most heinous crime, the Saguntines were then 
parricides, because they chose that their parents 
should die in liberty rather than live in slavery. 
Thus a case may happen in which there may be 
no guilt in depriving a parent of life, and very 
often we cannot without guilt put a slave to 
death. The circumstances therefore attending 
this case, and not the nature of the thing must 
decide the matter : those circumstances as they 
are favourable or unfavourable ought to weigh 



278 CICERo's PARADOXES. 

with us : but if there is no difference in circum- 
stances there can be none in guilt. It is true, that 
the guilt of wrongfully killing a slave stands 
singly without consequences attending it. But 
the guilt of murdering a father is complicated. 
You have murdered the man who begat you ; 
the man who fed you ; the man who brought 
you up ; the man who gave you property, gave 
you a home, and qualified you for the service 
of your country. This offence therefore being 
attended with numbers of aggravating circum- 
stances is worthy the greater punishment. But 
in life we are not to consider the severity of 
the punishment a man is to undergo, but the 
rule of right which he is not to transgress. We 
are to consider every action that we commit 
against decency to be wicked, and every action 
we commit against rectitude to be criminal. 
What ! in the most trifling matters ? To be 
sure ; for if we are unable to regulate the pro- 
portions of actions, yet we may bound our af- 
fections. If a player ever so little transgresses 
the decorum of action or the rules of speaking 
a verse longer or shorter than it ought to be, 
he is hooted and hissed off the stage. And shall 
you, whose life ought to be better proportioned 
than any stage action, and more regular than 
any verse, shall you be found faulty even in a 
syllable of conduct? I overlook the trifling 
faults of a poet ; and shall I overlook my fellow- 



CICERo's PARADOXUS. 279 

citizen's life while he is counting his misdeeds 
upon his fingers? If some of them are too 
short does that make them less faulty, since the 
jarring must arise from the discord of reason 
and order? Now, if reason and order are 
disturbed, nothing can be added to aggravate 
the misconduct which such disturbance must 
introduce. 

PARADOX IV. 

THAT EVERY FOOL IS A MADMAN. 

Now,* sir, I will put you upon a short allowance, 
not as I have often done on account of your folly, 
or as I always do on account of yourvillany, but 
on account of your madness and insanity. 
Could the mind of the wise man fortified as with 
walls by admirable foresight, by invincible per- 
severance, secure against every accident, and 
clothed with every virtue, a mind that could not be 
expelled out of this commuity, shall such a mind 
be over-powered and taken by storm? For 
what do we call a community ? Surely not every 
assembly of thieves and ruffians? Is it then 
composed of out-laws and robbers assembled 

* This paradox is supposed by our author to be addressed 
to Clodius who had driven him into exile ; and perhaps it 
will be difficult for any reader to produce a piece of more 
consummate vain glory and self applause than Cicero here 
discovers 5 after his pusillanimous disgraceful behaviour under 
his exile. 



280 CICERO'S PARADOXES. 

in one place ? Surely not. Rome therefore was 
no community when her laws had no force ; 
when her courts of justice were disregarded ; 
when her constitution lay expiring; when her 
magistrates had the sword of violence at their 
throats ; and when the authority of the senate 
was abolished within her walls. Could that 
gang of ruffians, that assembly of villains which 
you headed in the forum, could those remains of 
Catiline's frantic conspiracy then devoted to your 
lawless rage be termed a community ? I could 
not therefore be expelled from this community 
because no such then existed. I was introduced 
to this community when the consular authority 
which had been abolished, was at the head of 
our government, when the senate which then 
lay gasping, resumed its functions ; when the 
voice of the people was free ; and when laws and 
equity, those bonds of community, were restored 
to their force. 

Thou shalt now be made sensible how much 
I despised the arrows that were aimed at me by 
yourscoundrelship. That you darted, that you 
shot your villanous wrongsatme, Ineverdoubted ; 
but that they hit or reached me, I never thought. 
It is true you might think that somewhat belong- 
ing to me was tumbling down or consuming 
when you was demolishing. my walls and apply- 
ing your accursed torches to the roofs of my 
houses. But neither I nor any man can call a 



CICERO's PARADOXES. 281 

thing our property if we can be deprived, if we 
can bestript, if we can be robbed of it. Could 
you have robbed me of my soul's divine con- 
stancy, of my application, of my vigilance, and 
of those measures through which, to your confu- 
sion, Rome now exists ; could you have abolished 
from the records of immortality the eternal 
memory of my services to my country ; far more, 
had you robbed me of that soul from which all 
those services sprung ; then indeed I should 
have confessed that I felt your blows. But as 
you neither did nor could affect me in that 
manner, your persecution rendered my return 
glorious, but not my departure miserable. I 
therefore was always a citizen of Rome, but es- 
pecially at the time when the senate charged 
foreign nations with my preservation because I 
was the best of patriots. As to you, you are at 
this time no citizen, unless we admit a citizen 
and an enemy of Rome to signify the same 
thing. Can you distinguish a citizen from an 
enemy by the accidents of nature and place, and 
not by his affections and actions ? You have 
filled the forum with blood, and the temples 
with bands of ruffians ; you have set on fire the 
temples of the gods and the houses of private 
citizens. If after all this you are a citizen, why 
are we to deem Spartacus* to be an enemy ? 

* Spartacus.~\ He was a slave who raised a rebellion which 
Crassus suppressed. 



282 CICERO^ PARADOXES. " 

Can you be a citizen in that city which through 
you for some time had no existence ? And have 
you a right to upbraid me, when all mankind 
thought that Rome herself was gone into exile, 
when I was driven out of her walls ? Never, 
thou most frantic of all madmen, wilt thou turn 
thy eyes upon thyself ? Wilt thou never consider 
thy actions or thy words ? Dost thou not know 
that exile is the penalty of guilt : but that the 
journey I set out upon was undertaken by me in 
consequence of actions that were attended by 
the most consummated glory? All the cri- 
minals, all the profligates, of whom you avow 
yourself the leader, and on whonr our laws 
pronounce the sentence of banishment, are exiles, 
and that too without leaving Rome. At the 
time when all our laws doomed thee to banish- 
ment were thou not an exile ? Is not the man 
an enemy to the peace of his country, who 
carries about him offensive weapons ? A cut- 
throat belonging to you was taken near the 
senate-house. Who is to be deemed a murderer ? 
You ; for you have murdered many. Who an 
incendiary ? You ; for with your own hand you 
set fire to the temple of the nymphs. Who was 
guilty of sacrilege ? You ; for you shut up our 
temples by pitching a camp in the forum. But 
what do I talk of well known laws, all which 
doom you to exile ; for one of your bosom friends 



CICERO^ PARADOXES. 283 

carried through a bill pointing at you only, by 
which you was condemned to be banished, if it 
was found that you had been present at the mys- 
teries of the goddess Bona ; and it is now be- 
come your boast that you was guilty of that fact. 
As therefore you have by so many laws been 
doomed to banishment, do you not tremble at 
the appellation of an exile ? You tell me you 
are still present in Rome. I know it, and that 
you were present at the mysteries too : but 
though you were there, yet you had no right to 
be there ; and therefore you are as an exile 
from that place where its laws do not suffer you 
to remain. 

PARADOX V. 

THAT THE WISE MAN ALONE IS FREE, AND 
THAT EVERY FOOL IS A SLAVE. 

In this place I am disposed to praise a general, 
to let him be honoured with that title, or let 
him be thought worthy of it. But how or 
where is the free man who is to be commanded 
by a man who cannot command his own inor- 
dinate passions? Let him in the first place 
bridle his lusts, let him despise pleasures, let 
him subdue anger, let him get the better of 
avarice and of every thing that debases a rational 

* Bill.] The reader will find an ampl^ detail of this 
matter in my translation of Cicero's Epistles to Atticus. 



284 



CICERO S PARADOXES. 



being, and then when he himself is no longer 
in subjection to disgrace and dishonesty, the 
vilest of all tyrants, let him then I say begin to 
command others. But while he is the slave of 
his lusts, he is so far from having a right to the 
title of a general, that he has none to that of a 
free man. This is the noble doctrine laid down 
by the most learned men, whose authority I 
should not make use of were I now addressing 
myself to an assembly of rustics. But as I speak 
to men of the most refined understandings ; who 
are no strangers to what I am saying ; why 
should I falsely pretend that all the application 
I have bestowed upon this study has been lost. 
It is therefore a maxim with the most learned 
men, that none but wise men can be free. For 
what is liberty but the power of living in the 
manner most pleasing to ourselves ? Who then 
is he who lives in that manner ? The man 
surely who follows righteousness, who rejoices 
in fulfilling his duty, and has laid out a well 
considered and well contrived plan of life. The 
man who obeys the laws of his country, not out 
of dread, but pays them respect and reverence 
because he thinks such obedience the most con- 
ducive to the good of society. Who is sincere 
and free in all his words, in all his actions, nay 
in all his thoughts ? The man whose whole 
plan of conduct and business arises from and 
is terminated by his own virtues. The man who 



CICERo's PARADOXES. 285 

is swayed by nothing so much as by his own in- 
clination and judgment. The man who is 
master of fortune herself, that irresistible comp- 
troller of human actions, agreeable to what the 
poet says, that " fortune is moulded according to 
the manners of every man." It cannot happen 
to any but to a wise man, that he does nothing 
against h s will, nothing with pain, nothing 
with force. It would it is true require a large 
discourse to prove the reality of this character, 
but we may in a very few words be convinced 
that no man, but a man of this character can be 
free. All wicked men therefore are slaves, and 
this is not so surprising and incredible in fact as 
it is in words. For they are not slaves in the 
sense those bondmen are, who are the properties 
of their masters by purchase, or by any law of 
the state ; but if it be slavery (and slavery no 
doubt it is), to obey passions that are irregular 
and unmanly, passions that deprive us of the ex- 
ercise of our reason ; then who can deny that 
all dishonest, all avaricious, in short, all wicked 
persons are slaves ? 

Can I call the man free who is governed by a 
woman, who gives him laws, who lays him 
down directions, who orders him one thing and 
forbids him another, according to her own ca- 
price ; while he can deny and dare refuse nothing 
that she demands ? Does she give the word ? 
His purse must be open. Does she call ? He 



286 CICERO's PARADOXES. 

must come. Does she chide ? He must vanish. 
Does she threaten ? He must tremble. For my 
part I call such a fellow, be his blood ever so 
noble, not only a slave, but "the slave of all 
slaves." Now in a large family of fools, some 
slaves look upon themselves to be more genteel 
than others, such as those we employ as ushers, 
or gardeners, yet still they are slaves. In like 
manner, they who are immeasurably fond of 
statues, of pictures, of embossed plate, of works 
in Corinthian brass, or magnificent palaces, are 
equally fools with the others. " Nay, but (say 
they) we are the chief men of the government." 
It may be so ; yet you have no preference over 
your fellow-slaves. But as in a large house they 
who are obliged to handle the furniture to brush 
it, to anoint their masters, to sweep the house, 
and water the hall, are not to be ranked among 
the genteeler kind of slaves ; in like manner 
they who have abandoned themselves to their 
passions, for the things I have mentioned, are 
next to the very lowest of all slaves. Says 
one of these gentlemen, " But I have had the 
direction of important wars, I have had under 
me great commands and great governments." 
Then if you have, carry about you a soul worthy 
of praise. You doat upon a painting of Echion, 
or a statue of Polycletus ; I shall not mention 
from whom you took it, or by what means you 
possess it ; but when I see you staring with asto- 



CICERO'S PARADOXES. 287 

nishuient, gaping with admiration, and exclaim- 
ing with rapture, I look upon you to be the slave 
of those trifles. You ask me, " Are not these 
then elegant amusements ?" To be sure, they 
are ; for I too have a judging eye in the fine 
arts ; but give me leave to tell you, that fine as 
they are, they ought not to serve as fetters for 
our manhood, but as objects of our amusement. 
Let me ask your opinion ? If Lucius Mummius 
after the contempt that he expressed for all 
Corinth, had seen one of our great men ex- 
amining in an extasy a Corinthian vase, whether 
would he have looked upon him as an excellent 
citizen, or a busy appraiser ? Supposing Manius 
Curius, or some of those Romans who in their 
villas and their houses had nothing that was 
costly, nothing besides themselves that was orna- 
mental, saw one of our modern great men after 
receiving the highest honours his country could 
bestow, taking out of his stews his mullets or 
his carp, then handling them, and boasting how 
rich he was in lampreys. Would not the old 
Roman think that such a man was so very a 
slave, that he was fit for no higher employment 
than to be the caterer of a household ? Can we 
have the smallest doubt that those men are slaves, 
who from their greediness for wealth readily 
embrace the hardest conditions of the vilest 
slavery ? To what meanness of slavery will not 
the expectation of succeeding to an estate make 



288 CICERO's PARADOXES. 

a man stoop ? How watchful he is to catcli 
every nod of the childless rich old fellow ? His 
words are suited to his humour ; he obeys every 
order the other gives him ; he courts him, he 
sits by him, he makes him presents. What is 
there that looks like freedom about such a man ? 
What is there about him that does not carry with 
it the most convincing evidence of his being a 
beaten slave ? 

Well! I will now consider the passion that 
seems to be more peculiarly the character of 
liberty, I mean that for public preferment, for 
empire, and for government ; and how severe 
is its tyranny ! how imperious ! how irresistible ! 
It forced the men, who thought themselves the 
greatest men in Rome, to be slaves to Cethegus, 
a person of a very questionable character ; to 
send him presents, to wait upon him at nights 
at his house, to turn suitors, na}f supplicants to 
him. If such men are to be accounted free, 
who is to be accounted a slave ? But what shall 
I say when the sway of this passion is over, and 
when fear, another tyrant, springs out of the 
consciousness of their misdeeds, and succeeds 
it ! What a hard, what a wretched servitude is 
that ? When they must be slaves to every young 
fellow who has got a tolerable knack at talking ; 
when they must look up with fear and trembling 
to every man who they think can be an evidence 
against them. As to their judge, how powerful 



CICERO^ PARADOXES. 289 

is his sway over them, with what terrors does he 
fill the breasts of the guilty ? And is not all 
dread slavery ? What then is the meaning of 
that more eloquent than wise speech delivered 
by the accomplished orator, Crassus ? " Snatch 
us from slavery." How could a man of his 
eminence and rank be a slave ? Every terror of 
a weak, a mean, and a dastardly soul is slavery. 
He goes on — " Suffer us not to be the slaves of 
any (you perhaps imagine that he is now about 
to assert his liberty ; so far from that he adds), 
but to the whole state (a change of masters does 
not effect freedom) ; to whom we can be and 
ought to be slaves." Now we whose souls are 
lofty, exalted, and intrenched in virtue, disown 
that we either ought to be or can be slaves to 
any. You may say that you can be a slave, 
because in fact you are one ; but you ought not 
to say that you owe it as a debt, because no man 
can. owe any thing but that, which it would be 
disgraceful not to pay. But enough of this. 
Now let our general consider if he can deserve 
that title, when reason and truth must convince 
* him that he is not so much as a freeman. 



i 



290 CICERo's PARADOXES, 

PARADOX VI. 

THAT THE WISE MAN ALONE IS RICH. 

How vainly, how ostentatiously, Crassus, are 
you always making mention of your money ? 
Well ; you say, you alone are rich ? Immortal 
gods ! am I to thank you that I have received 
this piece of information and instruction ? You, 
Crassus, the only rich man ! What, if you are 
not rich at all ? What, if you even are a beggar ? 
For let me ask you, whom are we to mean by a 
rich man ? To what kind of a man is the 
term applicable ? If I mistake not, to the man 
whose possessions enable him to live with free- 
dom, and who is cheerful and contented with 
what he has, who has no desire, no hankering 
after, no wish for more. It is your own mind, 
and not the talk of others, nor the greatness of 
your estate that must pronounce you to be rich ; 
for it ought to think that nothing is wanting to 
your happiness, and be void of all anxiety about 
any more than what you enjoy. If your mind is 
satiated, or even contented with the money you 
have, I admit that you are rich ; but if for the 
greed of profit you think no means are too vile 
to obtain it (though you are of an order, Crassus, 
that renders it impossible for you to make honest 
profits), if you every day are cheating, deceiving, 
craving, jobbing, poaching, and pilfering; if 



CICERO** PARADOXES. 291 

you rob the friends and the treasury of the 
public ; if you are for ever hunting after, nay, 
forging wills in your own favour ; I ask you 
whether such practices are the symptoms of 
poverty or riches ? It is the mind and not the 
pocket of a man that is to be accounted rich. 
For let your pockets be ever so well crammed, 
when I see yourself empty, I shall not think you 
to be rich; because the measure of riches is 
taken from the sufficiency that every man has 
of the means of happiness. A man has a 
daughter. Then he ought to have a fortune. 
But he has two. Then he ought to have a 
greater fortune. He has more. Then he ought 
to have more fortune still ; and if, as we are told 
of Danaus, he has fifty daughters, their fifty 
fortunes require a man to have a very great 
estate. For, as I said before, a man can only 
be called rich according to the necessities he is 
under for having money. Now if a man instead 
of having a great many daughters, has a million 
of inordinate passions which are craving enough 
to consume a very great estate in a very short 
time, how can I call such a man rich, when his 
own soul tells him that he is poor ? You have 
often, Crassus, been heard to say that no man is 
rich who cannot upon the income of his estate 
maintain an army ; now this is what the people 
of Rome some time ago, with all their revenues 
found a difficulty to do. Therefore according 

u2 



292 CICERO'S PARADOXES. 

to your maxim, you never can be rich before 
your incomes enable you to maintain forty 
thousand men, with a vast body of auxiliary 
horse and foot. You therefore in fact confess 
yourself not to be rich, since you fall so far 
short of your own description of a rich man ; 
you therefore have made no secret that you 
are poor, that you are needy, nay, that you are a 
beggar. 

For as we see that they who make an honest 
livelihood by commerce, by industry, by farm- 
ing the public revenue, have occasion for all 
they earn ; so whoever sees your house crowded 
with numbers of accusers and judges all in 
compact with one another ; whoever sees you 
presiding at all the consultations held how to 
bribe justice, or to acquit rich and guilty cri- 
minals : whoever reflects upon the scandalous 
wages you receive as a patron, upon your pecu- 
niary corrupting practices in elections for public 
offices ; upon your despatching your freedmen 
to pillage and plunder the provinces ; upon your 
dispossessing your neighbours ; upon your de- 
populating the country by your oppressions ; 
upon your confederacies with slaves, with freed- 
men, and with clients ; upon the estates you 
have untenanted ; upon the wealthy you have 
prescribed ; upon the corporations you have 
massacred, and upon the harvest you have made 
during Sylla's tyranny ; upon the wills you have 



CICERo's PARADOXES. 293 

forged, and the people you have secretly mur- 
dered ; in short whoever reflects upon your un- 
limited venality in your levies, your decrees, in 
the votes you give yourself, in the votes you make 
others give, in the forum, in your house, in your 
speaking, and in your not speaking ; who I say, 
when he reflects upon all this must not acknow- 
ledge that such a man has occasion for all he has 
acquired, a character that by no means suits 
with a rich man. For the advantage of riches 
consists in plenty, which is seen in the overflow 
and abundance of the means of life ; now as 
you think you never can have enough you 
never ought to be accounted rich. I shall say 
nothing of myself, because (and you have reason) 
you despise my fortune ; what the public thinks 
to be middling, you think to be next to nothing, 
and I think to be sufficient ; I therefore confine 
myself to facts, Now if we are to form our 
opinion and judgment by facts, whether we are 
more to esteem the money which Pyrrhus sent 
to Fabricius, or the continency of Fabricius for 
refusing that money ? Which are we to value 
the most, the gold of the Samnites, or the answer 
of Manius Curius ? The inheritance of Lucius 
Paulus, or the generosity of Africanus, who 
gave to his brother Quintus his own part of that 
inheritance ? Surely those illustrious proofs of 
virtue are more valuable than any acquisition of 
monev can be. If therefore we are to rate 



294 CICERo's PARADOXES. 

every man rich only in proportion to the valuable 
things he possesses, how can we hesitate to pro- 
nounce that man to have the greatest riches who 
has the most virtues, since no estate in land or 
money is more to be valued than virtue ? 

Immortals gods ! Little do men consider what 
a revenue frugality brings in ; for I now pro- 
ceed to speak of men of expense, I take my 
leave of your money-worms. The revenue one 
man receives from his estate is thirty thosuand 
pounds a year ; my estate brings me in one 
thousand a year. Now that man is so expensive 
upon the gilded roofs of his villas, upon marble 
pavements, so unbounded is he in his passion 
for statues, pictures, fine clothes, and rich fur- 
niture, that all his estate is so far from defraying 
the expense of his living, that he does not even 
pay the interest of the money he is forced to 
borrow ; while by confining my desires to my 
income, I can even save somewhat of my pit- 
tance. Which then is the richest, he who 
wants, or he who abounds ? He who is in need, 
or he who has a superfluity ? The man whose 
estate, the greater it is, requires him to have the 
greater means of supporting his rank and quality, 
or the man whose income is sufficient for all his 
occasions ? 

But why do I talk of myself, who through the 
contagion of fashion and the degeneracy of the 
times, am perhaps a little infected with those 



CICERO's PARADOXES. 295 

fashionable follies. Our fathers may have re- 
membered Manius Manilius (that I may omit any 
farther mention of the Curii and the Luscinii), 
he came at last to be poor ; for he had only a 
little house at Carani and a farm near Labicum. 
Now are we, because we have greater possessions, 
richer men ? I wish we were. But we are not 
to form our notions of riches upon the rent-roll 
of an estate, but upon the manner in which the 
possessor of it is inclined to live and appear. 
The having no inordinate passion is money in a 
man's pocket ; his having no turn for expense 
is as good as an estate in land. Above all things 
contentment with what we possess is the greatest 
and most durable of all riches. If therefore 
they who are best acquainted with the arts of 
money are best pleased when they lay it out 
upon fields and ground-rents, because such 
estates are the least liable to accidents of any 
kind, how much more valuable is virtue of 
which we never can be stript, we never can be 
robbed ? We cannot lose it by fire, or by water, 
and it remains our unalienable property through 
all the rage of seasons and convulsions of govern- 
ment. The possessors of virtue are the only 
rich in this life: for they alone possess those 
means that are profitable and eternal ; and they 
are the only men who, being contented with 
what they possess, think it sufficient, which is 
the most essential property of riches: they 



296 CICERO'S PARADOXES. 

hanker after nothing; they are in want of 
nothing; they miss nothing, and they require 
nothing. As to the unsatiable and avaricious 
part of mankind whose possessions are liable to 
uncertaintys and accidents, they therefore are 
for ever thirsting after more, nor was ever a 
man of that turn, of opinion that he had enough ; 
therefore they are so far from being wealthy 
and rich, that they are to be looked upon to be 
in want and beggary. 



THE END OF THE PARADOXES, 



THE 



VISION OF SCIPIO.* 



SCIPIO SPEAKS. 



When 1 arrived in Africa you know I was 
tribune of the fourth legion, and served under 
the command of the consul, Lucius Manlius. 
At that time I was highly delighted with having 
an opportunity of an interview with Massinissa, a 
prince who lay under the strongest obligations 
of friendship to our family. When I met the 

* The Vision of Scipio.~\ This is one of the most curious 
pieces that we have from antiquity. It is a kind of an episode 
which our author had introduced into a larger treatise, 
which he had wrote concerning government,, and which is 
now lost. It was written in a dialogue between Scipio and 
some of his friends, and the following dream was preserved 
by Macrobius who wrote a commentary upon it The scien- 
tific part of it is taken partly from the Platonic and partly 
from the Pythagorean philosophy. The argumentative part 
seems to be Platonic entirely, and the sentimental part is 
Cicero's own. 



298 



SCIPIO S VISION. 



old man, he took me in his arms and shed tears 
over me. Soon after, throwing his eyes up to 
heaven, I thank thee (says he) ever glorious sun, 
and ye the other illuminarys of heaven, that 
before I have left this life, I have seen in my 
kingdom and under my roof Publius Cornelius 
Scipio, a name that brings me back to my youth ; 
for never shall the memory of that greatest, that 
most invincible of men leave my senses. After 
this I informed myself from him about his king- 
dom, and he himself from me about our govern- 
ment ; and thus the day slipped over in a variety 
of discourse. 

After being most royally entertained at supper, 
our conversation lasted till midnight ; while the 
old king talked of nothing but of Africanus. and 
remembered not only all his actions, but all his 
expressions. Then taking our leaves to go to 
bed, I (being tired with my journey and my 
sitting up later than I usually did) fell into a 
sleep sounder than ordinary. Now it is my firm 
opinion that what we generally think and dis- 
course of all day, produces in our sleep some- 
what like to what happened to Ennius, with 
regard to Homer, of whom he was constantly 
while awake thinking and talking. Therefore it 
was undoubtedly from our talking so much of 
Scipio, that he seemed to present himself to me 
in my sleep, and I recollected his person, not 
so much from anv remembrance I had of it, 



scipio's vision. 299 

as from the pictures and statues of him which 
I had seen. 

No sooner did I know him than I shuddered. 
" Draw near (said he), be of good courage, lay 
aside your dread, and treasure up my words in 
your memory. You see that city ;* by me it 
was forced to submit to the people of Rome, but 
ever restless, it is now renewing its former wars 
(he spoke these words pointing to Carthage from 
an eminence that was full of stars bright and 
glorious) ; you are now come before you are a 
complete soldier)- to attack it. Within two 
years you shall be consul, and shall throw it to 
the ground ; and you shall acquire the surname 
that you now inherit. After you have destroyed 
Carthage, performed atriumph, and been censor; 
after in quality of legate you have visited Egypt, 
Syria, Asia, and Greece, you shall in your ab- 
sence be chosen a second time consul ; then you 
shall finish a most dreadful war, and utterly 
destroy Numantia. But when you return to as- 
cend the capital in your triumphal chariot you 
shall find the government thrown into confusion 
by the practices of my grandson ;J and here my 

* City."] Meaning Carthage which was utterly overthrown 
and razed to the ground by the younger Africanus. 

f Soldier.'] The original is nunc Denis pane Miles, because 
Scipio was then only a young man and one of the military tri- 
bunes, which post was looked upon as only a kind of a cadet - 
ship which they went through before they could be generals. 

X Grandson.'] Meauing Tiberius Gracchus or his brother; 



300 scipio's vision. 

Africanus you must display to your country all 
the lustre of you spirit, genius, and wisdom. 

But at this period I perceive that a cloud 
hangs upon the paths that providence has des- 
tined you to tread. For after the sun has per- 
formed his winding and direct revolution seven 
times eight times* over your head, both which 
are complete numbers in different manners, and 
in their natural rotation will bring you to the 
crisis of your fate, then will Rome turn her eyes 
wholly upon thee and thy glory ; the whole 
body of the senate, all virtuous patriots, all our 

their mother was daughter to the elder Africanus. I cannot 
help being of opinion that Virgil took from this vision his 
first hint of the discourse which he introduces in the sixth 
book of the iEneid, between iEneas and his father. 

* Seven times eight times.'] The critics and commentators 
have been very profuse of their learning in explaining this 
passage. But since the doctrine of numbers, and the motions 
of the heavenly bodies have been so well understood, it is a 
learning of a very useless nature. The sum of what they tell 
us is, that the numbers 7 and 8 are complete numbers, and 
when multiplied into one another produce 56, which is one of 
the climacterics of human life. The reasons they give for all 
this are so many and so fanciful, that though they are strength- 
ened with the greatest names of antiquity, it can be of very 
little use for a modern reader to know them. I shall how- 
ever here set down the original of the whole passage. Sed 
ejus temporis ancipitem video quasi fatorum viam. Nam cum 
(Etas tua septenos octies solis anfractus, reditusque converteret, 
duoque hi Numeri, quorum uterque plenus, alter altera de Causa, 
habetur, circuitu naturali summam tibi fatalem confecerint. 



SCIPIO S VISION. 301 

allies, and all the Latins, shall look up to you, 
and to you only. Upon your single person the 
preservation of your country will depend ; and 
in short, you will, as dictator, settle the govern- 
ment, if you can but escape the wicked attempts 
of your kinsmen. "* — Here when Lselius gave a 
shriek, and the rest of the company expressed 
themselves in deep groans, says Scipio with a 
gentle smile, I beg my friends that you will not 
waken me out of my dream, have patience and 
hear it out. 

But proceeded my great ancestor, " To encou- 
rage you in the service and defence of your coun- 
try, know from me that a certain placef in 
heaven is assigned to all who preserve or assist 

* There scarce can be a doubt that this passage was in 
Virgil's eye, when he makes Anchises break out in that 
beautiful exclamation in the sixth book of the iEneid con- 
cerning Marcellus. 

Heu miser ande puer si qua fata aspera rumpas. 
Tu Marcellus eris 

f A certain place."] All this is a very noble system, and 
not extremely irreconcileable in some parts of it to the 
Christian religion. Its absurdities however have evidently 
given rise to the Romish doctrine of purgatory ; for we per- 
ceive that Scipio does not suppose that every soul returns 
to that mansion of bliss j neither does he say positively 
that those souls are mortal that do not, but that being 
pressed with sins, they are obliged to perform a very, very 
long purgation before they can return to heaven, from whence 
they came. 



302 scipio's vision. 

their country or increase her glory, where they 
are to enjoy an eternity of happiness. For no- 
thing is more acceptable to that god of gods 
who governs the system of the world and directs 
all human occurrences, than those councils and 
assemblies of men, that being united by social 
laws from thence are termed states ; of these the 
governors and preservers go from hence, and 
hither do they return." — Here, frightened as I 
was, not from the dread of death but from my 
apprehension of domestic treachery, I asked him 
whether my father Paul us, and the other 
great men whom we thought to be dead were 
yet alive ? " To be sure they are alive (replied 
African us), for they have escaped from the fetters 
of flesh and blood, as they would have done from 
a prison. As to what you enjoy and call life, it 
is not life but death. But behold your father 
Paulus approaching." — -No sooner did I see him 
than I dissolved into tears ; but he embracing 
and kissing me forbad me to weep. When I 
recovered the use of my tongue, which had been 
stopped by my concern. Why, said I, thou beati- 
fied being, thou best of fathers, why ami tied to the 
earth, since here, as Africanus informs me, and 
here only, life can be enjoyed ? Why am I de- 
barred from flying to you ? 

" Not so, my son (replied he), unless that god 
whose temple is all you behold, shall free you 
from the fetters of the body you can have no 



scipio's vision. 303 

access hither. For the condition of man's ex- 
istence is that he garrison that globe which you 
see in the middle of this temple, and which is 
called the earth. His soul issues from those 
eternal fires which you call constellations and 
stars, and which being globular and round are 
animated with divine spirit, and complete their 
cycles and revolutions with amazing rapidity. 
Therefore, you my Publius, and all good men, 
must preserve your souls within your bodies ;* 
nor are you without the order of that power 
who bestowed them upon you to depart out of 
this life, lest you seem to desert from that post 
which has been assigned you by God. There- 
fore Scipio in imitation of this your grandfather 
here, and me, who begot you, live in the 
practice of justice and piety ; let your affection 
for your parents and kinsmen be great, but for 
your country let it be unbounded. Such is the 
life that will introduce you into heaven and into 
the assembly of those who have left the earth, 
and being freed from their bodies, inhabit the 
glories of the place thou beholdest." 

• Your souls within your bodies, #c] The reader will per- 
ceive from this admirable passage, that the greatest and the 
wisest of the ancients disclaimed the practice of self-murder. 
The figure which our author here makes use of, is taken, as 
he informs us in his Treatises upon Old Age and Friendship, 
from Pythagoras, and if I mistake not, the same sentiment 
and allusion is to be met with in Plato. 



304 scipio's vision. 

Now the place my father spoke of, was a 
radiant circle of dazzling brightness, amidst the 
flaming bodies, which you, in conformity with 
the Greeks, term the milky way. While from 
this station I surveyed every thing around me, 
the different objects filled me with delight and 
amazement. The stars I saw are not discerni- 
ble from this earth, and their greatness sur- 
passed all that human imagination can conceive. 
The smallest of those bodies was that which was 
placed upon the extremity of the heavens, but 
nearest to the earth, and shone with borrowed 
light. As to the globular bodies of the stars, 
they greatly exceeded in bulk the earth, which 
now to me appeared so small, that I observed, 
not without concern, this our empire contracted 
into a very point. 

While I was gazing upon this appearance, 
says Africanus, " What, will you never raise your 
attention from that grovelling spot? Come 
observe with me the glories of this temple. 
You must know that all things are connected by 
nine circles, or rather spheres ; one of which 
(which is the uttermost), is heaven, and com- 
prehending all the rest, is inhabited by that all- 
powerful God, who bounds and directs the 
system of universal nature ; and in this sphere 
are fixed those properties - that give eternal 
motion to the stars in their several courses. 
Within this are contained seven other spheres, 



scipio's vision. 305 

that turn round in a motion which counteracts 
that of the heaven. Of these, that planet which 
on earth you call Saturn, performs one revolution. 
That shining body which you see next, is called 
Jupiter, and is friendly and salutary to mankind. 
You next behold the gleaming Mars, whose in- 
fluence is dreadful to mortals. The sun holds 
the next place, almost under the middle region ; 
he is the chief, the leader, and the director of all 
the other luminarys ; he is the soul and guide 
of the world, and so immense in his bulk that 
he illuminates and fills all other objects with his 
light. He is followed by the orbit of Venus, 
and that of Mercury, in the nature of attendants ; 
and the moon rolls in the lower sphere, enlight- 
ened by the rays of the sun. Below this every 
thing has a mortal transitory existence, except- 
ing the souls of men, which are given them by 
the gods. Whatever lies above the moon is 
eternal. For the earth which is the ninth 
sphere, and is placed in the centre of the whole 
system, is immoveable and below all the rest ; and 
all bodies by their natural direction tend thither." 
Recovering from the amazement with which 
all these objects struck me ; from whence said I 
proceed these sounds so strong,* and yet so sweet, 

* Sounds so strong, 8fC. Nothing can appear more whim- 
sical than this Pythagorean doctrine of the music of the spheres, 
if we take it in a literal sense ; but even Christian diviues and 
sound philosophers have made use of it as an allegory to 

X 



$06 SCIPIo's VISION. 

that ravish my ears? " The melody (replies 
he), which you hear, and which, though composed 
.of unequal stops, is nevertheless made up of 
those due proportions that constitute harmony, 
is effected by the impulse and motion of the 
spheres themselves, which by a happy temper of 
sharp and grave notes, produces that regular 
variety of sounds. Now it is impossible that 
such prodigious movements should pass in 
silence; and we are instructed by nature, that 
the sounds which the spheres at one extremity 
utters must be sharp, and those on the other 
extremity must be grave. Therefore, that most 
capacious revolution of the star-stuck sphere 
being performed with a swifter motion, occasions 
a short and quick sound ; whereas the moon 
which is situated the lowest, and at the other ex- 
tremity, moves with a heavy sound. As to the 
earth, the ninth sphere, it takes up the centre of ' 
the world ; and being immoveable, it for ever 
occupies the lowest station. 

Now these eight directions, two of which, that 
of Mercury and that of Venus have the same 
powers, effect seven sounds differing in their 
modulations, which number comes very near to 
the principle which combines the whole. Some 
learned men by imitating this harmony in a 

express the moral and natural economy of the world, which 
arises from so many principles seemingly contradictory in 
themselves. 



scipio's vision. 307 

concert of voices and instruments, have opened 
a way for their return to this place ; as all others 
have done, who, endued with generous qualities, 
have cultivated in their mansions of earth the 
arts of heaven. 

These sounds are so strong that they have 
deafened the hearing of mankind, for of all your 
senses it is the most blunted. Thus, the people 
who live near the cataracts of the Nile, where 
that river rusheth down from very high moun- 
tains, are without the sense of hearing, so ex- 
cessive is that noise. Now this sound, which is 
effected by the rapid rotation of the whole 
system of nature, is so powerful, that human 
hearing cannot comprehend it, in like manner 
as you cannot look directly upon the sun, 
because his rays are too intense for your sight 
and senses." 

I continued still struck with admiration, and 
yet I could not help sometimes throwing my 
eyes upon the earth. " I perceive (said Africanus, 
observing this), that even now you are contem- 
plating the seats and mansions of the human 
race. Observe, therefore, how comparatively 
small they appear ; fix your regard upon things 
above and despise those below. Let me ask 
you what enjoyment can you find in being the 
subject of popular applause ; or what is human 
glory, that it ought to be desired ? Look at the 
earth, how few, how narrow, are its peopled 

x2 



308 scipio's vision. 

spots, and what prodigious deserts are inter- 
posed between those specks that are inhabited ! 
As to the inhabitants themselves, their situations 
are at such impassable distances that it is next 
to impossible for them to have communication 
with one another. Part lie upon one side, part 
upon another, and part are diametrically opposite 
to you, and if such is the disposition of the 
earthly inhabitants, it is unreasonable surely to 
expect true glory from them. 

You are now to observe that the same earth is 
encircled and encompassed by as it were four 
belts, of which the two that are most distant 
from one another, and seem as it were to bind 
the two extremities of the world, are covered as 
you see with frosts and snows, while the middle 
and the largest belt is burnt up with the heat of 
the sun. Two of those belts or zones are habit- 
able ; and the feet of the inhabitants of the 
southern one are planted directly opposite to 
yours; nor have they any communication with 
your empire. As to this more northerly zone 
which ye Romans inhabit, observe what a small 
portion of it falls to your share : for all that spot 
which is inhabited by you, which narrows to- 
wards the south and north,* but widens from 

* Which narrows towards the south and north, #c] This is 
a very curious passage, and if our author's interpreters are 
to be believed, he was acquainted with the true figure of the 
earth, a discovery which is generally thought to have been re- 



scipio's vision. 309 

east to west, is no other than a little island 
lying in that sea, which on earth you call the At- 
lantic, sometimes the great sea, and sometimes 
the ocean ; and yet with such a sounding name 
how diminutive does it now appear to you ! 
Now let me ask you whether you think it possi- 
ble for your, or my, or any man's renown to 
move from those cultivated and inhabited spots 
of ground, and pass beyond that Caucasus or 
swim across yonder Ganges ? What inhabitant 
of the more eastern or the more western parts of 
the earth, of those tracts that run towards the 
south or towards the north, shall ever hear of 
your name ? Now supposing them cut off, how 
narrow is the scene over which your glory is to 
spread ? As to those who speak of you, how long 
will they speak ? 

Let me even suppose that posterity shall be 
grateful enough to transmit your renown or mine, 
as they received it from their fathers, yet when 
we consider the convulsions and conflagrations 
that must necessarily happen in the course of 
things, we must be sensible that all the glory we 
can attain to, far from being eternal, cannot be 
lasting. Now of what consequence is it to you 

served for Sir Isaac Newton, and to have been confirmed by some 
late experiments : but I own I am not without some doubts as 
to our author's meaning, whether he does not here speak, not of 
the whole face of the earth, but of that part of it which was 
possessed or conquered by the Romans. 



310 SCIPIo's VISION. 

to be talked of by those who are born after you, 
and not by those who were born before you, who 
certainly were as numerous and more virtuous ; 
especially, as amongst the very men who are thus 
to celebrate our renown, not a single one is to 
be found who can recollect the transactions of 
the last year. For it is a mistaken notion in 
mankind to measure their year by the revolution 
of the sun which is no more than a single 
planet. But when all the planets shall return 
to the same position which they once had, and 
bring back after a long rotation the same face of 
the heavens, then the year may %e said to be 
truly completed, a year which will contain I 
dare not venture to say how many. For, as 
formerly when the spirit of Romulus entered 
these temples the sun disappeared to mortals ; 
thus whenever the sun at the same time, and 
with the same symptoms of the completion of 
the same revolution, shall again disappear, then 
you are to reckon the year to be complete. But 
I must acquaint you that the twentieth part of 
that year is not yet elapsed. 

If therefore you hope to return to this place, 
which is the ultimate object of the wishes of all 
great and good men, how despicable then must 
you look upon that portion of popular glory that 
endures for a little, and but a very little, part of 
that year? If your thoughts, if your desires, 
are raised to this sublime object, to this mansion 



scipio's VISION. 311 

of happiness, to this eternity of bliss, you neither 
will devote yourself to the pursuit of popular 
applause, nor will you rest the hopes of your 
future condition upon human considerations. 
Genuine virtue has charms enough to allure you 
to true glory ; let others talk of you, for talk they 
will, as they think proper. But all such talk is 
confined to the narrow limits of those countries 
that you have now under your eye. No man 
ever engrossed it long; when man dieth, it 
wasteth away ; and when posterity remembereth 
it not, it perisheth." 

Perceiving that Africanus had done speaking : 
Since, O Africanus, replied I, the services we do 
to our country open .to us as it were the gates 
of heaven, though from my childhood I have 
ever trod in your and my father's footsteps with- 
out disgracing your glory, yet the noble prize 
that is now set before me shall doubly animate 
me in my duty. 

" Yes ! (replied my grandfather), you ought to 
redouble your efforts, and not to consider your- 
self, but your body, to be mortal. For your true 
existence consists not of that flesh and blood we 
see ; the real existence of man lies in his soul 
and not in his tangible body. Know therefore* 

* Know therefore.'} It was the common opinion of all 
the ancient philosophers who followed the system of Py- 
thagoras, that the souls of men, and even of beasts, were por- 
tions of divinity. What opinion our author had of the 



3J2 scipio's vision. 

that you are a God. Since it is divinity that has 
consciousness, sensation, memory, and foresight, 
it is divinity that governs, regulates, and moves 
that body of yours, and that divinity is directed 
by the ruling God of this system ; and in like 
manner as an eternal God guides this world, 
which in some respect is perishable, so an eternal 
spirit animates your frail body. 

For that which is ever moving* is without 
beginning or end ; now that which commu- 
nicates to another object a motion which it re- 
ceived elsewhere, must necessarily cease to live 
as soon as its motion is at an end. Thus the 
being which communicates the motion is the 
only being that is eternal, because it never is 
abandoned by its own properties, neither is 
this self-motion ever at an end ; nay, this is the 
fountain, this is the beginning of motion to all 

properties and immortality of the soul is difficult to deter- 
mine. For we are not to imagine that in the passage before us, 
and in many others in which he mentions the subject, he 
gives his own sentiments, but those of others ; accordingly in 
his first book De Natura Deorum, he makes Velleius one of 
his prolocutors absolutely destroy the doctrine which is ad- 
vanced here. 

* For that which is ever moving. ] All this doctrine is 
taken almost word for word from the Phcedrus of Plato, and 
Macrobius has reduced it to the following syllogism. The 
soul is self-motive ; now self-motion contains the principle of 
motion, the principle of motion is not created, therefore the 
soul is not created. 



scipio's vision. 313 

subjects that are capable of motion. Now 
there can be no fountain of a fountain, there 
can be no beginning of a beginning, for all things 
proceed from a beginning ; therefore a beginning 
can rise from no other cause, for if it proceeded 
from another cause it would not be a beginning ; 
where, therefore, there is no beginning there 
can be no ending* ; for supposing the beginning 
to be extinct, it is impossible for any other being 
to create it anew, or for it to produce any thing 
else, because it is necessary that all things should 
have a beginning. The principle of motion 
therefore can only exist in a self-motive being, 
and it is impossible that such a being should be 
born or that it should die, otherwise all heaven 
must go to wreck, and the whole system of nature 
must stop, and being deprived of that motion 
which it received from its first impulse, all its 
properties must cease. 

Since therefore it is plain that whatever is 
self-motive must be eternal, who can deny the 
souls of men to be impressed with this property ? 
For every thing that is moved by a foreign im- 
pulse is inanimated, but the soul of man has an 
inward and peculiar principle of motion, and in 
that consists its nature and property. Now if it 
is the only being that is self-motive, it must follow 
that it is uncreated and eternal. Do thou there- 
fore employ it in the noblest of exercises, in the 
service of thy country. The soul that is warmed 



314 scipio's vision. 

with this, will fly the more quickly to this man- 
sion which is its own home, and its flight will 
be the more expeditious, if, while it is imprisoned 
within the body it sallies abroad and detaches 
itself from its enclosure in contemplation of 
those objects that are without it ; for the souls of 
those men who are devoted to and enslaved by the 
pleasures of the body, and who becoming the 
servants of their prevailing lusts and self-grati- 
fications, violate all laws of God and man ; such 
souls when they escape out of their bodies hover 
round the earth, nor are they readmitted to this 
place, till after a consummation of many ages." 
African us then departed and I awoke. 



THE END OF SCIPIO's VISION, 



CICERO 



UPON THE 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE, 



ADDRESSED TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 



Though I am convinced that before this 
letter can reach you, you have received intelli- 
gence both by couriers and by common report, 
as well as by other conveyances, that a third year 
is now added to my longing and to your labours ; 
yet I think it proper for me likewise to inform 
you of this piece of bad news. For while every 
one else despaired of the success, I still, by re- 
peated letters, gave you hopes that you would 
speedily have a dismission from your govern- 
ment. This I did, not only that I might amuse 
you as long as possible with that pleasing ex- 
pectation, but becausel presumed that the strong 
interest made both by me and the praetors for 
that purpose, could not fail of success. Now as 
it has so happened that their interest and my 



316 CICERO UPON THE 

zeal have both proved ineffectual, the blow it is 
true is severe, but we ought never to suffer our 
minds which are employed in managing and 
supporting the arduous affairs of government 
to be crushed or dejected by misfortune. And 
because those misfortunes which men incur 
through their own faults ought most to afflict, 
there is in this transaction somewhat more 
afflicting to me than ought to be to you, for it 
happened by my misconduct contrary to your 
repeated instances while you was parting, and by 
letters since you have been gone, that your 
successor was not named last year. It is true, 
that I did this with a view of consulting the 
welfare of our allies, of crushing the presump- 
tuousness of certain traders,* and of increasing 
my own glory through your virtues ; yet still I 
acted imprudently, especially as the consequence 
was, as has happened, of a third year being added 
to that second. 

Having thus frankly acknowledged my mis- 
conduct, let your prudent cares and generous 
deportment provide in your application a remedy 
for my mistake ; and surely if you exert your- 

* Traders.'] Several complaints had been carried to Rome 
against Quintus, and Cicero thought that his brother re- 
maining another year in his government might have stifled 
them. The reader is to observe that this government was the 
province of Asia Minor, one of the best the Romans had, and 
that a great many merchants resided there for the benefit of 
commerce. 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 317 

self in all the duties of government so as to seem 
to vie not only with others but with yourself, if 
you call forth all your spirit, all your attention, 
all your thought, and all that love of glory, 
which is so powerfully prevalent in all trans- 
actions, believe me, that one year added to your 
toil will bring many years of pleasure, and 
transmit our renown to our posterity. The first 
thing therefore I have to recommend to you is, 
that you will not suffer your spirit to be damped 
or diminished, nor yourself to be overwhelmed, 
as with a flood, in a multitude of business ; but 
that on the contrary you will arouse yourself, 
that you will encounter it bravely, nay, provoke 
its approaches ; for that share of government 
which has fallen to your- lot is not directed by 
fortune, but may be happily conducted by a 
man of sense and application. Had the pro- 
longation of your command happened at a time 
when you was involved in the management of 
some great and dangerous war, then my very 
soul should have trembled within me, because I 
must have been sensible that the power of for- 
tune over us was prolonged at the same time. 
But situated, as your province is at present, fortune 
seems to have little or nothing to do with it, and 
your success must be entirely directed by your 
own virtue and wisdom. If I mistake not, we 
are afraid of nothing from the treachery of 
enemies ; nothing from any revolt of our allies ; 



318 CICERO UPON THE 

nothing from want of money or scarcity of pro- 
visions, and nothing from the discontent of our 
army. Yet these often happen to the wisest of 
men, who are forced to yield to the assaults of 
fortune, as the best of pilots sometimes are to the 
violence of a tempest. 

Your government is now in profound peace 
and perfect tranquillity ; but though those are 
circumstances that ought to give pleasure to a 
vigilant steersman, yet they may be fatal to a 
sleeping one. For your province is composed, 
first of that kind of allies, who of all the human 
race are the most humanized ; and in the next 
place of those Roman citizens, who either as 
farmers of the public revenues, are intimately 
connected with me, or as merchants who have 
got rich by trade, attribute all their wealth and 
all their enjoyments, to the happiness of my 
consulship. " Yes ! But they are miserably 
divided amongst themselves ; they are per- 
petually harassing one another, and this gives 
rise to envy and animosities." 1 am no stranger 
to that ; I am sensible that you have some 
business upon your hands, nay business that 
requires great wisdom, and great address to 
manage. But still you are to remember, and I 
maintain it, that this is to be managed by 
address more than by fortune. If you restrain 
yourself, how easy is it to restrain those you 
govern. Self-restraint is performed with great 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 319 

pain, with great uneasiness by the generality of 
mankind ; and it must be owned to be a matter 
of great difficulty ; but the practice of it was 
ever easy to you ; and well it might be, because 
uninstructed nature has formed your mind to 
moderation ; while at the same time the acqui- 
sitions you have from learning, are such as are 
sufficient to correct the most violent extrava- 
gancies of nature. You check the temptations 
of money, of pleasure, and of ambition in every 
shape ; can I then be brought to believe, that 
you can have any difficulty in checking an 
impudent trader, or a fleecing farmer of the 
public revenue ? As to the Greeks, when they 
behold your life and conversation, I know they 
look upon you as one of their ancient patriots 
revived ; nay, as a man that has been sent them 
from heaven as a blessing to their country. 

I write to you in this strain, not to intimate 
that you ought to practise such virtues, but to 
give you joy of your having always practised 
them, and of your continuing so to do. What a 
glorious character is it for a man to be invested 
with three years' sovereign power in Asia, and 
yet preserve his integrity and moderation, 
inflexible against every temptation of statues, 
of pictures, of plate, of furniture, of slaves, of 
beauty, and of money, commodities in which 
this province abounds ! Again, what can be a 
more distinguished, a more desirable circum- 



320 CICERO UPON THE 

stance, than that this virtue, this moderation, 
this purity of mind should not be buried or 
concealed in darkness, but displayed in the sight 
of Asia, to the eyes of the noblest of our 
provinces, while its fame reaches to the ears 
of all people and nations. How glorious is it 
for you, that those you govern are not alarmed 
at your journeys ! That they are not fleeced by 
your expenses ! That they are not frightened 
by your approach ! That transports of joy, 
both public and private, attend wherever you 
go ! That every town receives you as its 
guardian, not as its tyrant ! Every house as a 
guest, and not as a robber! 

But while I am upon this subject, experience 
by this time must have instructed you, that it is 
not sufficient for you alone to practise these 
virtues, but you are to give careful attention, 
that invested as you are with this government, 
not only you, but all officers subordinate to 
your authority, are to act for the good of our 
allies, of our fellow-citizens, and of our country. 
You have, it is true, deputies and lieutenants 
under you, who will do honour to the offices 
they bear ; and of these the chief in preferment, 
in dignity, and in experience, is Tubero, who I 
make no doubt, especially while he is writing 
his history, will be able to choose from his own 
annals such models of conduct, as he both can 
and will imitate. As to Allienus, he is firmly 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 321 

attached to us in affection and inclination, and 
he forms his manners by ours. Need I to 
mention Gratidius, who I know for a certainty 
to love us both as we were his brothers, and to 
make his regard for our character and reputation 
as dear to him as his own. It was chance, and 
not choice, that gave you your quaestor,* and I 
make no doubt of his voluntary moderation, 
and of his conforming himself to your orders 
and directions. 

Should any of your officers appear of a more 
selfish disposition, my counsel is, that you bear 
with him, while the consequences of his offences 
reach no farther than his own person, but to 
check him when he prostitutes for interest that 
power which you have annexed to his office. In 
the meanwhile as we live in an age at once so 
indulgent and so aspiring, I would not have you 
to scrutinize too narrowly into every piece of 
mismanagement, or to probe every offence 
to the quick ; but to proportion the trust you 
repose in every one, according to the degree 
of honesty he possesses. In like manner you 
are to treat those whom our government has 
given you as assessors and assistants, provided 
you become answerable for their conduct, 

* QucEstor.'] This officer had the charge of the public 
money, and it was determined by lot in what province he 
should serve. He likewise paid the soldiers, and acted as 
contractor for the army. 

Y 



322 CICERO UPON THE 

only under the restrictions which 1 have already 
laid down. 

As to your menial servants, or the officers 
attending your person, as the guards do the 
praetor, you are answerable not only for all their 
actions, but for all their sayings. I know, 
however, that you have about your person a 
choice of worthy men, and should others act 
any way inconsistent with your character, they 
can easily be checked. Meanwhile it is natural 
to suppose, that while you was unpractised in 
the affairs of government, they might have 
abused your generosity ; for the more virtuous 
any man is in himself, he is the less apt to 
suspect villany in another. 

As you are now entered into the third year of 
your government, practise the same integrity, 
but with still greater circumspection and ex- 
actitude, that you practised the two former 
years. Let all the world see that your ears are 
open to manly and honest advice, without being 
the receptacles of false and malicious whispers, 
insinuations, and complaints. Suffer not your 
seal* to be used as a common bit of furniture, 

* Suffer not your seal.~] Orig. Sit annulus tuus not ut vas 
aliquodj sed tamquam ipse tu : Non minister alienee voluntatis, sed 
testis turn. It may be proper to tell some of our readers, that 
the Rpmans generally wore their seals in the stones of their 
rings. Verburgius has a very ingenious note upon this 
passage : for instead of vas aliquod, which all editions but his 
own have, he reads vas aliquis, and then the sense will be, 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 323 

but consider it as your very self ; let it not be 
the tool of another's pleasure, but the evidence 
of your own. Let your pursuivant keep the 
rank assigned to him by our ancestors, who 
looked upon that office, not as a post of pleasure, 
but of labour and service, and were cautious of 
intrusting it to any but freed men, over whom 
they exercised pretty much the same command, 
as they did over their slaves. Let the lictor in 
punishing, express your lenity rather than his 
own, and let him wear his axe and his rods 
as the evidences rather of his post than of his 
power. 

In short, let all the province be sensible frow 
dearly you prize the welfare, the children, the 
fame, and the fortunes of all who are under 
your command. Let the public be convinced, 
that in all cases which shall come to your 
knowledge, you are equally the enemy of the 
man who gives, as of him who receives a 
present; for no such presents will be made, 
when once the people are convinced, that they 
who pretend to have the greatest interest with 
you, have really not at all. 

Now you are not to imagine, that by writing 
to you in the manner I do, I would have you 

" Use not your ring as a surety for an appearance." But this 
reading being supported only by conjecture, and the other 
making as good, if not better sense, I have retained the usual 
reading. 

y2 



324 CICERO UPON THE 

treat your dependants in a severe or suspicious 
manner. For if any of them have kept them- 
selves clear for two years of all suspicion of 
avarice, as I hear C8esius,Ch£erippus,arid Labeo, 
have done, and I believe it because I know them 
well ; I say, where that happens to be the case, 
I see no reason why you may not very properly 
commit to them, and men of their character, any 
trust or charge whatsoever. But if there is a 
man, whom you have already cause to suspect, 
or whom you have already catched tripping*, 
never intrust him with any part either of your 
power or your confidence. But if within your 
province you have got any person whom you are 
intimately familiar with, and who is unknown 
to me, you are to examine how far you ought to 
trust him. Not but that I believe there are 
many worthy men amongst the provincials ; at 
least I hope so, for it is dangerous to prove them. 
For every man is dressed out in false colours. 
His nature, his brows, his eyes, and very often 
his countenance belie him, but his speech is a 
perpetual lie. 

Amongst the Romans settled in your province, 
a set of men devoted to the love of money, and 
without any one inherent principle of virtue, 
where can you find one who will sincerely love 
you, a mere stranger to them, and who will not 
treat you, from interested views, with mere 
outside professions ? If you did, to me it would 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 325 

seem very extraordinary, especially as those 
very men pay seldom any regard to any private 
man, while they are always pretending the 
greatest for the praetors. However, if amongst 
such kind of men you should find one (for the 
thing is not impossible), who shall give you 
convincing proofs that he loves you more than 
he does his own interest, I advise you by all 
manner of means to treasure up such a man in 
your heart; but if no such man is to be found, 
you are then to guard with particular caution 
against the whole set ; because they know all 
the arts of getting money, they do nothing but 
for money, and they are indifferent about any 
man, who they know is soon to leave them. 

With regard to the natives of your province, 
who are Greeks, you are to be very cautious 
how far you carry your connexions with them, 
unless you find amongst them here and there 
a man worthy of ancient Greece. For take my 
word for it, in general they are deceitful and 
treacherous, and trained up by perpetual sub- 
jection, in the arts of sycophantry. Meanwhile 
I would be civil to them, nay the most eminent 
of them I would entertain and treat with friend- 
ship. But avoid all intimacys with them, for 
though they dare not fly in the face of a Roman 
magistrate, yet at the bottom they hate not only 
us, but their own countrymen. 

I am afraid that in the matters 1 have already 



326 CICERO UPON THE 

touched upon, you may think me too severe, 
while all my meaning is to be guarded and 
circumspect. Now what do you think of my 
sentiment with regard to slaves ; a set of men 
who ought to be under the strictest command in 
all places, but especially in the provinces ? 
Upon this head I could say a great deal ; but the 
shortest and the plainest method I can recom- 
mend, is for your slaves, in all your Asiatic 
journeys to behave so, as if you were travelling 
over the Appian way ; and that they think there 
is not the least difference whether they enter 
Tralle* or Formia.-j* But if any of your slaves 
should distinguish himself by his fidelity, let 
him be employed in your domestic and private 
affairs, but not let him have the smallest thing 
to do with any public concern, or any thing- 
relating to the business of your government. 
For though we may very properly intrust the 
management of many affairs to our faithful 
slaves, yet we are not to do it, because of the 
censure and reflections which it might occasion. 
But I know not how I have deviated from the 
purpose I set out with, and have slid into a 
dictating strain, and that too to a man whose 
knowledge in all matters of this kind is not less 
than mine, and his experience greater; but I 
thought it would give you a pleasure, if your 

* A city in the extremity of Asia, 
f A city in the heart of Italy. 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 



32f 



conduct should have the sanction of my autho- 
rity. Now your public character ought to rest 
upon the following particulars. In the first 
place, your own integrity and moderation ; in 
the next place, the modest behaviour of all who 
are about you, joined to a very cautious and cir- 
cumspect choice of your acquaintance, whether 
they be provincials or Greeks ; and add to this, 
a decent constant regularity in your domestic 
economy. All those particulars are commend- 
able in our private concerns and daily practice, 
but they must appear divine in a man clothed 
as you are with great power, and at the head of 
a province filled with corruption and degeneracy 
of manners. 

Such is the plan, such are the regulations, 
that in all your resolutions, and all your decrees, 
will be sufficient to support that severity which 
you exercised in those matters, that to my great 
pleasure, brought both of us into enmity with 
certain persons ; for sure you cannot imagine 
that the complaints of the fellow, one Paconius, 
who has not the merit of being ever a Greek, 
but is some Mysian, nay some Phrygian rascal, 
made any impression iipon me ; or that I was 
moved by the vociferations of Tuscenius, that 
frantic mean-spirited wretch, from whose pol- 
luted maw you so equitably rescued a dishonest 
prey. I repeat it again, that it will be no easy 
matter for us to act up to those and the other 



328 CICERO UPON THE 

instances of severity which you have practised 
in your government, without a constant per- 
severance in the most untainted integrity. 

You ought therefore to be inflexible in your 
judicial capacity, provided it never is warped 
by favour, but remains steady and even. It is 
however of no great consequence that you in 
your person are impartial and circumspect in 
your decisions, unless you are imitated by those 
to whom you have delegated some part of your 
power as a magistrate. Now in my opinion, at 
least the government of Asia, affords no great 
variety of business, and the whole of it is chiefly 
employed in the exercise of judicial powers, the 
discharge of which especially in provinces, is 
attended with no great difficulty. They must 
indeed be exercised with resolution and with a 
severity that is above all partiality, nay above all 
suspicion of it. To this must be added affability 
in hearing, deliberation in examining,* and ac- 
curacy-]* in explainingand enforcing your opinion. 

* Deliberation in examining.'] Orig. Lenitas in decernenao. 
The whole of this is a very fine passage, but the expression 
before us may very easily be misunderstood. Decernere with 
Cicero, as a term of law, never signifies to decree or pass sen- 
tence, but to examine and to weigh the circumstances upon 
which it is to be grounded. Neither does Lenitas properly 
signify what we call gentleness or lenity, but that calm dispas- 
sionate manner in which such an examination or inquiry ought 
to be conducted. 

f Accuracy.'] Orig. In satisfaciendo ac disputando Dili- 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 329 

By a conduct like this Octavius* lately ren- 
dered himself universally agreeable. His was 
the first tribunal,*] - before which the lictor had 
nothing to do, and the crier had nothing to say ; 
for every one spoke when he pleased and as long 
as he pleased. This perhaps was carrying his 
gentleness too far ; but we are to remember that 
this gentleness was the warranty of that inflex- 

gentia. I am not quite sure if I have translated this difficult 
passage rightly. I have the authority of Hottoman, an ex- 
cellent Latinist, as well as Civilian, on my side, for the sense in 
which I have translated satisfaciendo and disputando ; and that 
great man gives us instances both from our author and from 
Livy, of judges who deigned to argue with the parties in a suit 
before them, that they might give them satisfaction as to the 
rectitude of their decrees . But I suspect the meaning of the 
word Diligentia has not been attended to, for with our author 
it not only signifies diligence, application, and accuracy, but 
an observation of propriety which gives this passage a beau- 
tiful turn -, for in that sense Cicero advises his brother to be 
very careful not to prostitute the dignity of his character as a 
judge, by entering upon all occasions into altercations and 
explanations with the parties before him, and never to do it 
but with the utmost regard to the propriety of such a con- 
descension. 

* Octavius] He was father to Augustus Caesar, and had 
been about this time governor of Macedonia. 

t First tribunal.'] The common reading of the original 
here is apud quern primus lictor quievit, &c. but I think the 
reading recommended by Malespina, of primum instead of 
primus , is more elegant. 

X Warrant?] Orig. Nisi hac lenitas illam severitatem 
tueretur. 



330 CICERO UPON THE 

ibility which was one part of his character, 
for he obliged Sylla's party in his province to 
restore what they had violently and forcibly 
seized. Such of the magistrates as had been guilty 
of injustice were reduced to private stations, and 
made to suffer the penalties they had inflicted. 
Now this severity would have looked like cruelty 
had it not been tempered with great seasonings 
of humanity. 

If this gentleness is agreeable at Rome, where 
reigns so much arrogance, such unbounded 
liberty, such unrestrained licentiousness, such 
numerous magistracy s, where auxiliaries are so 
numerous, where power is so irresistible, and 
where the senate is so absolute, how agreeable 
must the affability of a praetor be in Asia, where 
such numbers of our countrymen and allies, 
where so many cities and so many states are 
observant of one man's nod ? Where they have 
no resource, no tribunal, no senate, and no as- 
sembly of the people to apply to ? It belongs 
therefore to the character of a great man, of a 
man humane by nature, and that nature improved 
by learning, and the study of the noblest arts, 
so to employ his great power as to take from 
those he governs all desire to live under any 
other government. 

The great Cyrus is represented by the philo- 
sopher Xenophon (not according to the truth of 
history, but that in his conduct we may have 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 331 

the idea of right government) as joining the 
greatest firmness to the sweetest manners. It 
is no wonder indeed that our countryman, Scipio 
Africanus, was continually reading his works, 
for in them he omits no duty of active well tem- 
pered government ; and if Cyrus, who could 
never be reduced to a private station, was so di- 
ligent in the discharge of those duties, what 
ought a man to be who must give back the 
power which he receives, and who must return 
to be judged by those laws from whence his au- 
thority was derived ? 

Now in my opinion, the ultimate end of go- 
vernment is to render its subjects as happy as 
possible ; and constant report, and the acknow- 
ledgment of all you have had to do with, have 
done you that public justice, as to say that this 
is your favourite view, and has been so ever since 
you first landed in Asia. Let me go farther, and 
observe that it is the duty not only of those who 
govern the allies and the subjects of Rome, but 
of those who have the care of slaves and cattle, 
to contribute to the happiness of all committed 
to their charge. In this respect I perceive it 
is universally allowed that your conduct has 
been irreproachable ; that the states of your go- 
vernment have been loaded with no new debts ; 
that you have discharged many old ones with 
which many of the cities were burdened and op- 
pressed ; that you have repaired many ruinous 



332 CICERO UPON THE 

and almost abandoned towns ; amongst others 
Samus, the capital of Ionia, and Halicarnassus, 
the capital of Caria ; that your towns of strength 
are free from all the spirit of mutiny and discon- 
tent ; that by your cares the several districts of 
your government are governed by men of worth ; 
that you have suppressed rapine in Mysia, and 
bloodshed in many places ; that you have esta- 
blished peace all over your government; that 
you have chased thieves and robbers, not only 
from the highways and country places, but from 
towns and temples, where they were more nu- 
merous and more dangerous; that calumny, 
the merciless tool to the avarice of praetors, no 
longer attacks the reputation, the fortunes, and 
the retirement of the rich ; that taxations are 
equally raised upon the inhabitants of the several 
states who pay them ; that in your person you 
are extremely easy of access ; that your ears are 
shut to no man's complaint ; that the poor and 
the helpless always find admittance not only to 
your public audiences and tribunals, but even 
to your house and your bed-chamber ; and that 
in short, in the whole of your government no- 
thing appears that is spiteful, nothing that is mer- 
ciless, but that it is filled with clemency, gentle- 
ness, and humanity. 

How important was the public service you per- 
formed when you freed Asia from the unjust 
burdensome tax imposed upon them by the 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 333 

sediles,* though you thereby have raised us 
powerful enemies ; for if one man of quality 
publicly complains that you have deprived him 
of almost £100,000. by prohibiting him from 
collecting the tax for public exhibitions, what 
vast sums must have been raised, had the custom 
continued for raising money for the use of every 
sedile who exhibited public shows at Rome. I 
fell however upon a method to stifle the com- 
plaints of this kind with regard to my province, 
and it is a method that however it may be relished 
in Asia, is highly applauded at Rome. For when 
the states of my government had voted a sum 
of money for building a temple and for erecting 
a monument to me, and when on account of my 
great deserts and your extraordinary services, 
they did it voluntarily and cheerfully, and 
though the law has expressly provided " That 
governors may receive money for erecting a 
temple or a monument," nay, though the money 
of this grant was not to be appropriated to any 
perishable purpose, but to be laid out upon the 
ornaments of a temple that was to appear to 

* ^Ediles.'] The whole of this paragraph is to be under- 
stood as I have translated it, though some have so egregiously 
mistaken it, as to imagine that those aediles imposed those 
taxes upon the diversions that were exhibited in the pro- 
vinces j when the truth is, that the provinces were taxed for 
the diversions that were exhibited at Rome, the expense of 
which ought to have been defrayed by the magistrates who 
exhibited them. 



334 - CICERO UPON THE 

future times, not more a compliment to me 
than a present to the people of Rome and to the 
immortal gods ; and yet I thought proper to 
reject the offer, though warranted by dignity, by 
law, and by the affections of those who made 
it ; and this I did for this reason amongst 
others, to take all cause of complaint from those 
magistrates who levy money against justice and 
against law. 

Apply yourself therefore with all you spirit 
and all your zeal to that plan which you have 
already practised, that of loving the people which 
your country has committed to your care and 
protection ; and pursue every measure that can 
prove you to intend their prosperity and happi- 
ness as the end of your government. 

But if fortune had set you over the Africans, 
the Spaniards, or the Gauls, those fierce barba- 
rous nations, yet still your humanity would have 
induced you to have studied their interests, and 
to have promoted their advantage and welfare. 
But when we govern a set of men that are not 
only of themselves humanized, but have been the 
means of humanizing others, it surely is our 
duty to repay them what we have received from 
them. For as I am in that way of life and in 
those circumstances that never can fall under 
any suspicion of indolence or unsteadiness, I am 
not at all ashamed to acknowledge that all the 
improvement I have made in learning and in 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 335 

the arts, is owing to what I have studied of the 
writings and compositions of the Greeks. There- 
fore besides the common faith which we owe to 
all mankind, there seems to be a tie upon us to 
have a particular regard for this race, and to 
repay to those who were our masters in the arts 
of life, the virtues which they taught us. Plato, 
that philosopher so distinguished by his genius 
and learning, thought that governments would 
be happy if they either fell into the hands of 
wise and learned men, or if the governors would 
apply themselves wholly to the study of learning 
and wisdom : meaning that this union of power 
and wisdom must be salutary to that state in 
which it happened. This may possibly some 
time or other be the case of our whole empire ; 
but at present it is the case of one province, that 
he who governs it has been engaged from his 
childhood in a constant pursuit of learning, of 
virtue, and humanity. 

Take care, therefore, my Quintus that this year 
which is added to your government prove to be 
a year that is added to the welfare of Asia ; and 
because Asia has been more successful in de- 
taining you than I was in procuring your recal, 
do you behave so as that my langour may receive 
some mitigation from the joy of the province. 
For if you have so indefatigably applied your- 
self to deserve greater honours than perhaps 
ever man did, your application ought to be re- 



336 CICERO UPON THE 

doubled in your endeavours to maintain them, 
I have already given you my sentiments con- 
cerning that kind of honours. I have always been 
of opinion, that if they are prostituted, they are 
mean ; if bestowed to serve a purpose, they 
are contemptible ; but if, as is your case, they are 
the rewards of merit, I think you cannot bestow 
too much pains upon their preservation. 

As, therefore, you are invested with the highest 
command and power in those cities where you 
see your virtues are consecrated and deified, 
you are in all your transactions, in all your re- 
solutions, in all your business, and all your 
behaviour, never to lose remembrance of what 
you owe to the opinions and judgments of men 
who are prepossessed so strongly in your favour. 
The result of this will be, that you will provide 
for all, that you will remedy their inconve- 
niencies, and be so careful of their welfare that 
you will both be called and esteemed the com- 
mon parent of Asia. 

I make no doubt but the farmers of the re- 
venue will throw a great bar upon your zeal and 
assiduity. If I should oppose them, I must se- 
parate from myself and from the public, an 
order of men to whom I am under the strongest 
obligations, and who, by me were attached to 
the service of our government. If on the other 
hand we should indulge them in every respect, 
we must wink at the utter destruction of those 



DUTIES OF A. MAGISTRATE. 337 

men, whose welfare, nay whose convenience, 
we are bound to consult. To say the truth, this 
is the difficulty in all your administration. For 
integrity, self-denial as to all inordinate affections, 
the regular economy of your family, the im- 
partial distribution of justice, your readiness in 
hearing causes, and your easiness of access to all 
who address you in person, are virtues more 
glorious than difficult in the practice ; for they 
consist not in tiresome application, but in the 
turn of the mind and the affections. 

Now that I am speaking of the farmers of the 
revenue, we had a proof how very oppressive 
they were to our allies in those cities, who when 
the tolls of Italy were lately abolished, com- 
plained not so much of the heaviness of the 
tolls as of the insolence of the toll-gatherers. 
This makes me sensible of the hardships which 
our allies in remote countries must suffer, when 
I hear such complaints from our fellow-citizens 
in Italy. It will therefore require a divine, that 
is your virtue in this situation of things, to keep 
upon your side the farmers of the public revenue, 
especially such of them as have taken their farms 
at an excessive rent, and at the same time not to 
suffer our allies to be ruined. 

But in the first place as to the Greeks, the 
hardship which they most bitterly complain of, 
that of their being taxed, is in my opinion no 
great hardship, because by their own con- 

z 



338 CICERO UPON THE 

stitutions, before they became subjects of the 
Roman empire, they always taxed themselves. 
As to the name of a farmer of the revenue, the 
Greeks ought not to hold it in such contempt, 
because without their assistance they could not 
have paid the capitation-tax imposed upon them 
by Sylla. Now the Caunians some time ago, 
who inhabit the islands that were annexed by 
Sylla to the division of Rhodes, petitioned the 
senate that they might pay their taxes to our 
farmers, rather than to the Rhodians, which to 
me is a plain proof that the Greeks are fully as 
severe as our farmers are, in the collection of 
the public revenue. They therefore who always 
have been taxed, ought not to hold the name of 
a tax-gatherer with horror ; nor ought they to 
despise him, without whom they cannot pay 
their taxes ; nor ought they who have petitioned 
for him to reject him. The Asiatics ought at 
the same time to reflect, that were they not 
under our government, they must perpetually 
be suffering every calamity of foreign war and 
domestic dissension. Now government cannot 
be supported without taxes, and therefore they 
ought cheerfully to pay to the public some part 
of their incomes, in consideration of the unin- 
terrupted peace and tranquillity they enjoy. 
When once they come to endure with patience 
the profession and name of a farmer of the 
revenue, your prudent measures and conduct 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 339 

"Will reconcile them the better to other con- 
siderations. They will come not to reflect so 
much upon the rigour of the censors in letting 
out the farms of the public revenue, but rather 
upon the advantages they enjoy in following 
their business, and their being freed from all 
kind of molestations. You can likewise con- 
tinue what you have always so nobly and so 
successfully endeavoured to put them in mind 
how much dignity there is in the office of a 
farmer of the revenue, and how much we owe to 
that order. By those means, without calling in 
the assistance of power, and without the terrors 
of the fasces, you will bring the publicans into 
favour and credit with the Greeks. You may 
even go so far as to entreat those whom you 
have so highly obliged, and who owe their all 
to you, that by their compliance they will suffer 
us to cherish and continue those intimate con- 
nexions that subsist between us and the farmers 
of the revenue. 

But why do I exhort you to those measures 
which you are so well disposed to pursue, 
though I did not recommend them ; and which 
in a great degree you already have happily 
executed. For the most honourable and con- 
siderable bodies of our empire are daily paying 
their compliments to me, which are the more 
agreeable, because the Greeks do the same. 
Now it is a matter of great difficulty to reconcile 
z2 



340 CICERO UPON Tri£ 

to one another the affections of men, whose 
interests, whose advantages, and whose natures 
I had almost said, are repugnant. Bat what I 
have here written, I have written not for your 
instruction (for wisdom such as yours, stands in 
need of no instructor), but I am charmed with 
the exercise of writing, when your virtue is the 
subject. This letter, however, has run to a 
greater length than I designed it should. 

There is one thing which I must incessantly 
recommend to you, for if I can help it, your 
glory shall be without the smallest speck of 
blemish. All the Asiatics who come to Rome, 
while they praise your virtue, your integrity, 
and your humanity, even in their greatest 
raptures, they still blame you for being so 
choleric as you are. This is a vice, which in 
private and common life indicates a slightness 
and weakness of temper ; but when a passionate 
behaviour is joined to sovereign power, nothing 
can be more unamiable or monstrous. I shall 
not, however, endeavour to give you the sen- 
timents of learned men, concerning the passion 
of anger, both because I want to finish this 
letter, and because you can easily learn them 
from their writings, which are very numerous. 
It is, notwithstanding, the duty of a corres- 
pondent, and therefore I think it my indispen- 
sable duty to inform the person to whom he 
writes of whatever he is ignorant of. Now I am 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 341 

told almost by every body, that when you are 
free from choler, you are the most amiable man 
in the world ; but when you are worked up into 
a passion by the impudence or perverseness of 
another, you are under such violent agitations, 
that no man can think you had ever been pos- 
sessed of humanity. 

As therefore ambition, interest, and fortune, 
have concurred to lead us into that walk of life, 
by which we become the perpetual subject of 
conversation amongst mankind, we ought to do 
and to strive all we can, that mankind may not 
have it to say, that we are guilty of any signal 
failing. It is true, such is the nature of man- 
kind, especially those of our years, that it is very 
difficult for a man to alter his disposition, or 
suddenly to pluck out a failing that has settled 
into a habit ; I therefore do not insist upon that. 
But my advice to you is this, if passion gets the 
start of reason, and takes possession of your 
temper, before reason could shut it out, so that 
it is impossible for you to discard it, you should 
undergo a course of preparation, and be every 
day meditating upon the means of resisting the 
attacks of passion, and the more violent they 
are, the more you ought to set a watch upon 
your lips, that you offend not with your tongue. 
This in my opinion, is as exalted a proof of 
virtue, as it is not to be angry at all, because the 
latter virtue may proceed from phlegm, as well 



342 CICERO UPON THE 

as from philosophy. But when you are touched 
with anger, to be guarded both in your actions 
and expressions, even to hold your peace, and 
to repress every extravagance, and every anguish 
of mind ; these are the properties, I will not say 
of consummate wisdom, but of extraordinary 
understanding. 

I am however informed, that in this respect 
you are become much more pliable and gentle. 
I now hear nothing of your violent emotions of 
passion, of your imprecating expressions, and 
opprobious behaviour, all which are as repugnant 
to authority and dignity, as they are reproachful 
to learning and good breeding. For those sallies 
of anger which are not appeasable, carry with 
them an excess of cruelty ; those which are, an 
excess of weakness ; the latter, however, are 
more eligible than the former. 

That the first year of your government gave 
rise to a great deal of talk upon this subject 
might be owing to your unexpectedly encoun- 
tering intolerable injustice, avarice, and in- 
solence in those you had to deal with. As to 
the second year, you was then much gentler, 
and more patient, and that reformation was 
effected by your being better used to those ways, 
by your reasoning with yourself, and if I mistake 
not, by my letters. Now your third year ought 
to admit of such amendment, as to be liable to no 
manner of reproach upon that account. 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATES. 343 

While I am upon this subject, I address you 
in the terms neither of exhortation nor command, 
but of brotherly entreaty, that you employ your 
whole abilities, care, and concern, in meriting a 
good opinion from all men in all quarters. Did 
not our situation expose us to being the subject 
of public conversation and discourse, in an 
uncommon degree, nothing would be required 
of you beyond the ordinary and common practice 
of life. But placed as we are, in the strongest 
and the brightest point of light, on account of 
the employments we fill, it will be difficult for 
us not to incur the highest ignominy, unless we 
acquit ourselves with the highest glory. We 
are so situated, that all good men are our friends, 
but they require and expect in return from us, 
application and virtue in their most extensive 
sense; in the meanwhile all the reprobate part 
of mankind, because with them we have declared 
eternal war, will make a handle of the very 
smallest circumstance to our prejudice. 

Asia is the theatre that has been assigned you 
for the display of your virtues, a theatre where 
.the spectators are celebrated by fame,* flourish- 
ing in power, and distinguished by discernment, 
but naturally so noisy that the expressions of 

* Celebrated by fame.'] Orig. Celebritate refertissimum. 
Notwithstanding the sense in which 1 have translated this 
expression, it may have another meaning, viz. a place filled by 
a resort of company. 



344 CICERO UPON THE 

their censure or applause reach even to Rome ; 
as this I say is the case, I beg that you will exert 
your utmost powers to appear by your merits 
not only to have equalled, but to have more than 
equalled this glorious destination, and as chance 
has fixed my share of the public administration 
in Rome, and yours in Asia, while I yield to 
none in my conduct, do you excel all in yours. 

You are likewise, my brother, to reflect, that 
we are not now labouring for a glory, that is in 
expectation and reversion ; but we are struggling 
to preserve what is actually in our possession, a 
glory that we had not so much reason to covet, 
as we have interest to preserve. Believe me, 
had I any interest that is distinct from yours, I 
could desire nothing more than that situation of 
life in which I am now placed ; but as the case 
is, that unless all your words and actions are 
answerable to my conduct here, I shall think that 
I have lost the fruit of all the mighty toils and 
dangers I have undergone, in all which you was 
a sharer. Now if you was the chief fellow- 
labourer, I had in working my way to this high 
degree of honour I now possess, you ought to be 
my principal assistant in maintaining it. 

You are not to regard the opinion and the 
judgment of the age we live in, but you ought 
to have an eye to futurity, whose verdict will be 
the more just, as it will be free from detraction 
and malevolence. In the next place, you are to 



DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 345 

reflect, that the glory you pursue does not ter- 
minate in your own person ; nay if it did, you 
would not be indifferent about it, especially as 
you have thought proper to consecrate the 
memory of your name by the noblest evidences 
of glory, but you are to share it with me, and it 
is to descend to our posterity. You are there- 
fore to be the more cautious, for by inattention 
you may not only appear to have injured 
yourself, but to have defrauded your children 
of their due. 

This I throw out, not that my words may 
rouse you from the slumber, but that they may 
encourage you in the race of glory; for you are 
incessantly persevering to merit the applause of 
all, for your equity, your moderation, your 
inflexibility, and your integrity. But so un- 
bounded is my affection for you, that I am 
possessed with an insatiable passion for your 
glory. In the meanwhile I am of opinion, that 
as you are now as well acquainted with Asia, as 
any man is with his own house; and as great 
experience has been added to your great wisdom, 
there is nothing that pertains to glory, of which 
you are not fully sensible, and which does not 
daily occur to you, without being exhorted to it 
by any one. But I who, when I read your 
letters, think I hear you, and when I write to 
you, think I converse with you, the longer your 
letters are, they give me the more pleasure, 

A A 



346 DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE. 

and for the same reason I make mine longer 
likewise. 

1 shall conclude with exhorting and entreating 
you, that in imitation of good poets and skilful 
actors, you will redouble your attention, while 
you are going through the catastrophe and the 
winding up of your piece ; that this last year 
of your government, like the last act of a play, 
may appear to the greatest perfection, and with 
the greatest lustre. This you may easily do, if 
you think that I, whom singly you have endea- 
voured to please more than all the world besides, 
take an interest in all that you do or say. Lastly, 
I entreat you, as you value my welfare, and that 
of all your friends, that you will take particular 
care of your own health. 



FINIS. 



Printed by J. D- Dewick, 
40, mrbican. 



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